


Icarus Session

by mitch1224



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Session, Alternate Universe - Fans & Fandom, Gen, fan universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-02 06:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 26,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitch1224/pseuds/mitch1224
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a story that began accidentally.</p><p>I'll back up.<br/>Two weeks ago, I began a Tumblr blog for the sake of training my worldbuilding, as well as to help people visualize their Homestuck FanLands. And, for the sake of exampling my skill (for, despite only having written for a single year, my strongest skill by far is worldbuilding), I described my own world. Then a friend's. The friend's ended up being mostly description, but a tiny bit of story seeped in.<br/>Then another friend's was written, and the descriptions listed into the limbo between story and description. So I had to fix that, I knew.<br/>Then, barely a week ago, I decided that, were I to write a fanfiction, I would damn well write it. I decided I'd go all out.</p><p>And now here I am, piecing together a story that began of characters and worlds based upon my friends and myself. Characters that have now become both parodies and exemplars of our personalities, and fantastical worlds that have now become something far more than I ever intended.<br/>And so begins the story of Daedalus, and of Cerberus and Ariadne and Kronos and Helios and Zephyr, of Bastet and Horus, of Thor, Loki, Odin, of Fenris, and of Lucifer and Uriel.<br/>So begins the Icarus Session.<br/>And may Gods have mercy on those who are fated to fall.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Foundations I: Entrance

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that began accidentally.
> 
> I'll back up.  
> Two weeks ago, I began a Tumblr blog for the sake of training my worldbuilding, as well as to help people visualize their Homestuck FanLands. And, for the sake of exampling my skill (for, despite only having written for a single year, my strongest skill by far is worldbuilding), I described my own world. Then a friend's. The friend's ended up being mostly description, but a tiny bit of story seeped in.  
> Then another friend's was written, and the descriptions listed into the limbo between story and description. So I had to fix that, I knew.  
> Then, barely a week ago, I decided that, were I to write a fanfiction, I would damn well write it. I decided I'd go all out.
> 
> And now here I am, piecing together a story that began of characters and worlds based upon my friends and myself. Characters that have now become both parodies and exemplars of our personalities, and fantastical worlds that have now become something far more than I ever intended.  
> And so begins the story of Daedalus, and of Cerberus and Ariadne and Kronos and Helios and Zephyr, of Bastet and Horus, of Thor, Loki, Odin, of Fenris, and of Lucifer and Uriel.  
> So begins the Icarus Session.  
> And may Gods have mercy on those who are fated to fall.

It all started with a crack.  
Now, by crack, I don’t mean a physical crack, but a metaphysical one. Some higher dimension had been broken, and because of it, time began its degradation. People gained memories of their futures, glimpses into things far ahead.  
At first, people were excited, entranced by this marvelous turn of events. They knew of the future, knew of things they were not permitted to know, and they flourished for those three long years.  
And then the first star winked out.  
One by one, in the sky, stars disappeared from existence, and the night sky became cold and dead. Humanity switched, in another short year, from salvation to annihilation. Accusations were made, wars were declared, and missiles launched.  
The world had reached its final moments, and any more strain would break it forever.  
And then, one day, something was found, a file uploaded to an internet that had once united the world, and now laid in ruin with much of what was left of the aboveground.  
It was quietly downloaded by a handful of people; less than twenty, total. Each installed the game, and the group, good friends in the deep underground where humanity now lived, prepared.  
“Hey, you ready?”  
“One moment.”  
The lanky man opened the user settings, and changed his username to Daedalus.  
“Ready.”  
The others all checked in: Zephyr, Kronos, Helios, Cerberus, Fenris, Thor, Loki, Odin, Lucifer, Ariadne, Bastet, Horus, and Uriel. Fourteen, total, including himself.  
It had been his idea to use mythical names. Considering what they were about to undertake, they’d need the help of gods and heroes.  
“Three minutes left until start-time.”  
When the third World War began, a contingency was set in place. Each country created a bunker, and to the bunker fled all the children of the nation. All of them, taken from their parents and cast into the only safety that was left.  
“Two minutes,” Zephyr wrote.  
Their group had been spared the worst of it; they had all been at the cusp of adulthood, and could now care for themselves. They were now older, and were among those who held the future in their hands.  
“One minute.”  
It had been two years, and nuclear warfare had decimated what once was Earth.  
“Go.”  
Fourteen programs open, and the first wave readied. The servers and clients connected, and the session began.  
“Alright, let’s do it.”

Within moments Cerberus had set out all of the equipment necessary. A few minutes later, they had everything ready. Before Daedalus sat a small box. A router. On the side was a large power button. Daedalus was ready to enter, save one thing. Prototyping.  
“Hmm… what to do, what to do… Oh, hey.”  
Daedalus picked up a wooden sword, a relic of the bygone age of ten years ago. He tossed it into the kernel, and, before it could even settle on its form, pushed in the power button.

The first had entered. Skaia had awoken.  
///Emergency Transmission End\\\\\  
\\\\\Please Alert Closest Authority///


	2. Foundations II: Entrance

Daedalus sat up slowly. Rubbing the spot where his head had collided with the wall, he looked at the swordsprite. What remained of it, at any rate.  
His sprite had settled on a final form- or, more accurately, had been forced into one. He had entered before it had fully absorbed the sword, and as such became… flawed. A burning half sword stuck out of the otherwise-ethereal sprite.  
Groaning, he opened his chat client, responding to Horus.  
“This, then, is what happens when you try and look cool. I find that rather interesting.”  
“Yeah, I had it coming.” Daedalus coughed and pushed himself up onto his feet.  
He stepped to the door of his room, and, pressing his hand into the metal, felt nothing. It didn’t give way.  
Each cell-room was made to protect, alone, against a nuclear blast. If other rooms were compromised, or destroyed, most others would survive. However, this also meant that each room locked when deprived of power, as part of their security measures, so it could backfire. As it just, apparently, had.  
“Hey, could you tell Zephyr that we each need something to open up our doors?”  
“And you can’t… why?”  
“Because I’m about to do something about the door. Something that will require some amount of pain and danger, and requires concentration.”  
“Fine. Sure, I’ll do it for you.”  
“Thank you.”  
Daedalus glanced back over his previous chat. Cerberus was unable to help him; his timer was almost out, and he had to enter as soon as possible. The Mages were to enter soon afterwards.  
He unscrewed the paneling of the door, and tried cutting a few wires from the first magnetic seal. Immediately, his knife was bifurcated by a bolt of iron flying at high velocity away from the door.  
“Let’s, uh, be more careful…”  
He eased the knife up, slowly cutting one wire. The iron bolt instead flew downwards now, punching a hole into the floor, about an inch from his foot.  
Sometimes, you just can’t win.

Zephyr stepped out of his room, and into the sunlight of The Land of Hazards and Gale.  
The island he stood on floated slowly through the air, and, as clouds passed by, he began preparing for the entrance of the second half of their group. Accessing Wave One’s computers, he began remotely installing server programs. Hearing a beep, he paused.  
“Yeah?”  
“Daedalus requested I send you a message. Tell everyone to bring something to get their doors open.”  
“Huh? I already told everyone. Did he forget?”  
“Yep, he forgot.”  
“Why didn’t you remind him?”  
“I’m hoping he will suddenly remember later. I’m also hoping, in fact, to see the look on his face when he does.”  
“Wonderful.”  
“Anyways, Cerberus is about to enter. So you know. I’ll go finalize that now.”  
“Understood. Get it done.”

After throwing a game’s commemorative statue into his kernelsprite, Daedalus exited the metal cell that had served as his home for these past three years. For a moment, he felt a pang of guilt for having brought about the destruction of his universe. Then the remembrance came- his universe had already been ending. If they had done nothing, it would have ended anyways. The least they could do was create a new universe to take its place.  
And thus, they had entered Skaia.  
Brushing blonde hair out of his eyes, he noted his world was flat, seemingly barren. All there was was what was underfoot- endless metal paneling. The atmosphere, too, seemed a bit thinner. As he observed his surroundings, an imp approached, and, ethereal sword in hand, jumped.  
“Wha- ah!”  
He jumped back, and promptly collapsed. “Gah…”  
A shadow loomed overhead. Then two. Then three. Then, oddly, only one again.  
Daedalus dove to the side as the roof of his home crushed the imps.  
There was a beep.  
“Hey, you alright there?”  
“Could be better, Uriel.”  
He stumbled to his feet. “Agh… thanks. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”  
“You could have, actually. Why didn’t you assign yourself a strife specibus?”  
“What?”  
The chat was silent a moment, then a quiet beep sounded. “You DO remember what we spent the last month doing, right? Practicing with weapons and all.”  
“We did that?”  
“Where were you?”  
“In my room, typing.”  
“That… What? Why?”  
“I don’t do physical things. They’re… sweaty. And icky. And I don’t like outside.”  
Again the chat was silent. Uriel slowly responded, “You… DO realize that we’ve been in an underground bunker for the last three years, right?”  
“Yes.”  
“Then… nevermind. Whatever. Just find something to use.”  
He returned to his room and investigated the nooks and corners of the room. “What sort of range do I have with this?”  
“What are you thinking of?”  
“Nothing, really,” he said, inspecting an old USB keyboard. “Just wondering. It’ll make it easier to pick.”  
“Okay, what did your sprite say your title was?”  
“My sprites just ran off.”  
“… What.”  
“No idea. Anyways, what range is there? Can it be anything? Could it be, for example, this keyboard, or does it have to be something that is specifically a weapon?”  
“Anything.”  
“Oh, cool. Okay. So I could make my keyboard my weapon?”  
“No- no, that’s a bad idea-“  
“You’ve got to try it with something first before doing it with the real thing.”  
Amidst beeps of “Stop” and “No” and “Seriously, though, quit”, Daedalus assigned the keyboard to his strife specibus.  
“Why were you saying to stop?”  
“Because you CAN’T REASSIGN IT.”  
“… Ah.”  
///Emergency Transmission End\\\\\  
\\\\\Please Alert Closest Authority///


	3. Foundations III: Stars

“So, I’m supposed to, what?”  
“Just screw around. Combine random things. See what happens. Experiment.”  
“And… why?”  
“Because your weapon is a keyboard. If you want to be able to do anything, you’ll need a stronger one.”  
“Fine. I’ll try something. Shouldn’t you be getting ready, anyways?”  
“I’ve got the most time out of anybody; I can afford to waste some of it.”  
“And as for your partner?”  
“Lucifer said he could enter by himself. So I’ll let him do that,” Uriel said, malice pouring from his voice.

The man who took up the name of Lucifer turned to look at his counter. Twelve minutes. Good. He spun back around to face the computer. “Alright, Fenris, you ready?”  
“Yeah, I’m ready.”  
“Great. Do it.”  
Fenris, standing twenty feet away from a hovering red ring, drew an elongated rifle. He took aim, and fired. A tiny hole appeared in the target, and the firing range went black.

He awoke in the Land of Squares and Stars. Exiting his room, he looked out across the landscape of red cubes and pillars of silver crystal. Far above him, the night sky glowed with light of galaxies, universes, stars, planets. Skaia slowly peaked over the horizon as the stars disappeared, but now instead the crystal sparkled and shone in a million hues. A cloud passed over, and a swath of crystal went dull for a moment, returning to life when it had left. Each pillar and each cube was highly angular, polished. They shone in the Skaian light, yet within them was nothing but darkness. They reflected their light, and left none to themselves.  
“Pretty. Hey, Lucifer, you seeing this?”  
“What?”  
Fenris turned around to see rude shapes built atop his home.  
“Get rid of that.”  
“But why?”  
“I don’t want it on top of my house.”  
“But it’s art! Look upon that beauty I have created, and behold its magnificence!”  
“Shut up Satan. Get it off my house.”

Once the offending image was removed from his home, Fenris grabbed a tiny action figure. He looked to Tanksprite, parked contentedly next to his home. He picked up the figurine, and tossed it into the tank.  
It brightened, blinding home, and, as the ground burst with light, it transformed, taking upon itself the visage of a mech. It floated to him, levitating before him, then bowed. “Welcome to your land, Prince of Form.”

The Monk of Void sat alone in an empty chamber, miles underground. His only company, his trusty Dogsprite, pulsating tan light. A few imps entered, only for their throats to be slit from the shadows.  
The illusion generator flickered and disappeared as Cerberus prepared to make his pilgrimage. A few wolves slipped out of the shadows behind him. The leader stepped forward. “Sir,” it growled.  
“Yes?”  
“What do you wish us to do?”  
“Warn me if any more imps are coming.”  
“Very well. There are more imps coming.”  
Cerberus sighed, closed his suitcase, and stepped back out into the clearing. He flicked the illusion generator back on and retreated back into the shadowy corner of the cavern.  
The Land of Tunnels and Revelations, after all, is a most dangerous place, where even the cohorts can kill.

Daedalus stepped back out of his room, and was greeted by five sword-wielding super soldiers. The one with the skull mask tried attacking; its tiny sword bounced off of the Porcelain Keyboard.  
“Hey, watch it.”  
“You are the one who created us?” The most feminine of the five sprites spoke with vaguely Russian-sounding accent.  
“Yeah.”  
The largest floated forward. “Do you realize what you have done?”  
Hungarian, perhaps?  
“You have planted the seeds of damnation.”  
Daedalus settled on Hungarian.  
“You have set up a session doomed to failure.”  
“What’s this about damnation, exactly?”  
The skull-masked angry one spun around his hand at high speed, trying to stab him. However, at that moment, his sword had decided to be more ethereal than coherent, and simply passed through him. Finally, giving up, he flew up and pointed his sword at Daedalus’ nose. “You have created a glitch.” His voice was accentless, yet sounded enraged and malevolent.  
The leader of the sprites stepped forward. “You have caused an error. Skaia creates universes, but what you have done is created an error.” The leader sounded the role- authoritative voice, calm, yet demanding.  
“What’s the error?”  
“You just saw.” The blade became coherent, and scratched his finger, leaving a papercut-like wound. The violent one spun back up to him, and rested the edge of the katana at his neck. “Because of you, the Black King is now far stronger.”  
“That happens anyways. For each person entering the session.”  
Again the leader spoke. “But normally, the first to enter does not give him the ability to disconnect from reality.”  
“By that, you mean…?”  
“Your incomplete prototype has allowed him to travel through anything, and all the rest of the prototypes will be more complex because of it. Now, if a book is thrown in, he- and all others in possession of a ring- will be able to gain the abilities spoken of in the book.”  
“Well, we just need to keep him from getting a book, then. Hey, skull guy. Could you please- you know.”  
The skull-helmeted soldier grunted, then sheathed his tiny sword.  
“Thank you.”  
Daedalus sat. “Okay, please. Explain to me. Where am I, and what is my class?”  
The first to speak was surprised. “You have knowledge of this place?”  
“We were warned. Two of our players are Mages. Time and Space. They knew how the universe was created, so they told us and we all started preparing.”  
The largest of them, approximately fist-sized, floated down and sat next to him. “That… an ill omen, friend. A Mage of Time, and a Mage of Space both… Your session is doomed.”  
///Emergency Transmission End\\\\\  
\\\\\Please Alert Closest Authority///


	4. Foundations IV: Influx

“What?”  
“Your two most vital players- they share a class. Time and Space both are requisite for the creation of a new world. If they truly do share a class, then one of them will die.”  
Daedalus stared past his knees, tracing the intricate details of the metal plating of his planet. After an eternity, he asked, “Why?”  
“There can be only one of any class or aspect. Your session is large, but many of you are similar in thought. Pray it doesn’t happen again.”  
“I… I won’t let anyone die. Not if I can help it.” He stood up, and turned to stare down at the 1/5thspartansprite leader, determination burning. “What is this Land named, and what is my title?”  
“This is the Land of Servers and Data, and you are the Soul of Mind.”  
“What is my power?”  
“That is not for us to tell.” He pointed away from Skaia. “Go. Ten minutes in this direction, and you will come across a staircase. Travel down, and begin making your way to the core. That is your quest.”  
“Oh,” he added, “and bring a light source.”

The Mage of Space was thrown out of his home at high velocity. He shot out his hand, and grabbed the doorframe. With a scream of pain, he pulled himself back in, and flipped off his generator.  
The door slid shut quickly, and Helios relaxed against the wall. This, unfortunately, sent him floating back into the air. Releasing a belabored groan, he repositioned himself in front of his laptop.  
“Hey,” he asked Kronos, “does your planet, by any chance, not have gravity?”  
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha”  
“Dick. I was nearly sucked into space just now, and you laugh?”  
“Look outside.”  
Glancing out the window, he saw the ground. “What’s your point?”  
“Keep looking.”  
As he watched, his house rotated, and the ground fell away to reveal… the other side of a cliff. As it turned, it showed only more ground.  
“Wait, what?”  
“You’re in a Dyson Sphere. Fully enclosed.”  
“Woah… That’s amazing! Wait, but what about the lack of gravity? Won’t that be a problem? Space Sickness, atrophy…”  
“If you were in space for a longer period of time without gravity, maybe. We have three days to beat the Black King. Anyways, you’re the Mage of Space. Immune to negative effects, remember?”  
“True. Hey, what’d you prototype?”  
“That mask I got in Italy. And my Songbird statue.”  
“Ah. I threw in a game.”  
“Mm. What game?”  
“Halo 4.”  
“Mm. Okay.”

Cerberus sped through the tunnels, enemies right behind him. He hit a dead-end, and, as the imps charged him, ran up the wall, pirouetted over the imps, and felled their leader. Another swung its blade towards him, and was cut down from behind as his sword passed through what was now an illusion. The third dropped before it could react.  
Cerberus flourished his dagger, then turned to face the other fifty imps.  
They charged.  
He vanished, rematerializing to the side. Seven of them fell.  
He blocked a slash with his knife, then spun backwards, disappearing. He lunged past the attacker, and it too fell.  
Two ogres slammed into the ground in pieces.  
Eight more attacked, swinging from every angle. Their blades passed through him, and they were dropped by the Monk of Void.  
He vanished, reappearing before eighteen imps, then vanishing again. The imps died without moving.  
A sword hit him as he reappeared next, but its owner fell before the sword dug through his skin.  
The last thirteen, broken, scared, hopelessly charged him, a last desperate attempt to kill him, and, more prominently, to survive, no matter the cost.  
He left none standing.  
A moment later, the wolves returned. “You’re gaining control over your powers as the Monk of Void.”  
Cerberus leaned against the wall, panting. “All I had to do was make anything involving me nonexistent. That and some parlor tricks and a quick hand.”  
“Harder than it sounds.” The leader growled to the other wolves, and the pack began gathering the grist and materials spread across the floor.  
“Yeah, pretty much. Hey, where are you all going?”  
“You have reached the highest level of the echeladder. Only a day into the game, no less. Your prowess in battle is masterful. But now, it is time for you to ascend.”  
“To ascend?”  
“It is time for you to become a God Tier.”

The Soul of Mind, Daedalus, took the final step down. He flicked on the lantern.  
Before him, seemingly infinite in size, were massive blocks, extending from the ground to the ceiling, broken into city blocks. Lines ran across them, but the lights were dead. The power was out.  
Daedalus had entered the Land of Servers and Data.  
He stepped forward.  
One of the 1/5spartansprites had been silent until now. “There are imps approaching.”  
“From what direction?”  
“All of them.”  
“Wonderful.”  
He opened his chat, and sent a single message out. “Zephyr, could you get someone to come help me? And quickly, please. Really quickly.”

Kronos, Mage of Time, stepped onto his roof. All around, as far as he could see, was nothing alive. There were Greek-looking ruins scattered here and there in the vast expanse of desert, but nothing moved. Skaia poured light down on the endless desert, burning.  
Kronos spun his jet-black scythe onto his back, then stepped from his roof and walked into the Land of Age and Decay, and the endless abyss of nothing that it contained.  
The black robes, he later concluded, while impressive, weren’t very efficient, and slowed him down enough that it outweighed the badassery on the other side of the scale.  
Later, Helios would find them lying to the side of a dune, covered by a fine layer of sand. He reached down, brushed a bit off, then pulled it into the air with a single gesture. The symbol of Space, emblazoned across his God-tier garb, glowed brightly as he glared at the sand-caked robes. He tensed his fist, and the robes burst into flame and disappeared.  
But I get ahead of myself. Prior to that, he was on frog-breeding duty.  
///Emergency Transmission End\\\\\  
\\\\\Please Alert Closest Authority///


	5. Foundations V: Void

Odin, Thor, and Loki had all entered by now; only five were yet to enter. Lucifer, Uriel, Horus, Bastet, and, the last, Ariadne. Lucifer, now, was out of time.  
He realized too late that he had procrastinated too much. Now he had less than a minute left to enter before a miscellaneous event destroyed his room, and, more importantly, him.   
He threw things out of his cabinets, trying to find something. Coming across a pentagram-inscribed leather book, he paused, then shrugged casually and chucked it into the Kernel.  
It morphed into a living book, armed with teeth and malevolently flying around the room, ripping apart books and furniture. It froze in front of Lucifer, then slowly turned to face him. It opened, and, for a moment, Lucifer could read a jumble of words across the pages. Then the book let loose a maelstrom of unintelligible noises that pierced his eardrums. He covered his ears and sank to the floor. Then, ever-mindful of the little time he had left, uppercut the book into the ceiling, bloody energy pulsating around his fist.  
The solidified friendship faded, and the Prince of Blood grabbed the Molotov that was his door into the Medium. He crushed it in his fist, and blue flames enveloped him.   
If one had looked in at that moment, they would have seen a man, tall, strong, massive sword across his back, blue flames pouring from one fist, a fading red light enveloping the other; his eyes were enveloped in shadows, covered by his dark hair. Then the flames faded, and he was gone.  
Where his room had been pulsated, warped, ate itself. The space where it had been was wiped from existence, and a singularity ripped apart the surroundings. A gaping maw opened in spacetime, and Earth began its final descent into the Maw of oblivion.

“Oh yeah, hey. Zephyr.”  
“What is it?” Zephyr sat down on the tiny rock he stood on.   
“I forgot to tell you earlier, but… well. Okay, who hasn’t entered yet?”  
“Lucifer, Ariadne, Horus, Bastet. Oh, and Uriel.”  
“Okay, tell them all not to prototype any books.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because. Remember how my prototype screwed up?”  
“Yeah, good job at that, by the way. Very smooth.”  
“Shut up. No, okay. So, because of it, somehow, Skaia is interpreting my prototype as ‘depth’.”  
“And that means…?”  
“Regardless of what we put in, it’ll come up with a possible meaning of it, and then assimilate that in. So if someone put in a tank, it’d probably get impenetrable armor, as opposed to looking like a tank.”  
“Funny, that’s what Evan put in. Wait. That’s a problem, isn’t it.”  
“Yes, that is a problem. Christ… Okay, just tell the others not to put in anything insane.”  
“Okay… uh… oh. Uh oh.”  
“What?”  
Zephyr stared wordlessly at the message he had just received.  
“Zephyr?”  
“Uh… Lucifer just entered.”  
“And? What did he prototype?”  
“Okay. Remember that little Satanist book he had? He used to use it to screw with people, right?”  
“Dear God please tell me he didn’t prototype it.”  
“He did.”  
“Well.” Zephyr waited a moment, then received a long, drawn-out soliloquy of swearing and cussing, ending with “We’re dead. We’re all dead.”  
“We can still win. Cerberus has been running around, collecting grist for everyone, and he’s killing imps by the hundreds.”  
“No, you don’t get it. The 1/5thspartansprites said that there can’t be more than one person with a title or aspect.”  
“What? But then what about-“  
“Either Helios or Kronos is doomed, and will die.”  
“… Are you sure?” Bumps spread up Zephyr’s arm; suddenly the wind that before had felt so warm and inviting turned cold and barren.  
“Ask your sprite if you want. I got four second opinions on this. So yeah. I’m sure.”  
“Hell… who’ve you told so far?”  
“You.”  
“Keep it that way.”   
“I planned to.”

Bastet and Horus worked together to enter, trading pieces and finishing in half the time. Finally, they created two plants- a cherry blossom tree, and an ice-coated shrub.   
Horus, on the advice of Zephyr, prototyped using a Star of David. Bastet had already prototyped using a replica Portal Gun, so they settled on it.  
“Hey… you think we’ll end up on the same world?”  
He looked at her. “I don’t know. Hope so.”  
“Okay...”  
They looked at each other once more, then entered The Medium.

On the far side of the bunker, the Maw was growing. Ariadne grabbed the first thing she saw, and threw it into the Kernel. The wall behind her crumpled and was ripped away. Ariadne rushed to the Alchemiter, created her entrance, and entered the Medium as her room was swallowed whole by the Maw.

Cerberus ascended the staircase, guided by the cave wolves. The cavern above was steeped in shadow- he had no idea how far he was from the top.  
“How much farther?”  
“Not far.”  
He fastened his eyes on the white fur of the Alpha. It flowed and whispered as the massive beast climbed the stairs.   
“We’re here.”  
“What? Oh…”  
Cerberus stared at the Quest Bed.  
“So… all I have to do is fall asleep on it… right?”  
“Yes.”  
He stared, then shook his head. “No, that’s too easy.”  
“What?”  
“Skaia is meant to make someone grow, right? So why would it be this easy to attain ultimate power? You’re not telling me everything.”  
The Alpha matched his stare. “Sleep. When you awaken, you will be a God Tier.”  
“No… I won’t do it. Not until I know what it is I’m doing.”  
As he spoke, the rest of the pack encircled him. The Alpha stepped closer. “Sleep, Hero of Void. Else we do this our way.”  
“No. I won’t do it.”  
The wolves leapt, and as their claws ripped their kin’s flesh and their teeth sank into their kin’s skin, they wondered why they were fighting each other. 

The Monk of Void stepped away from the village of wolves, unseen, unheard of. Unremembered. Monks are the pure embodiment of their aspect; they become it. Even without God Tier, Cerberus had mastered his aspect to the point where he could, with some strain, scrub himself from a group’s memory. The wolves now had forgotten that he had ever existed.

Horus stood up, and stared out the gaping hole that had replaced half of his room. Ice already crept across the metal walls, and lightning illuminated the world at periodic intervals. Necessary, considering his world was enveloped in an impenetrable blizzard.   
The Ace of Blaze had arrived in the Land of Ice and Lightning.

Bastet awoke to a world of calm. As she sat up, a pink petal floated down, followed by another. Rays of Skaia’s light pierced through the forest canopy, accentuating the world in vivid detail. The Maid of Light’s entrance had created a world beyond that of any other in the session; petals drifted down, shifting in the breeze and reflecting the beams of holy light that shattered the darkness of the forest. The wind picked up, and a hundred petals fluttered away, rising into the sky and out of view.  
The Maid of Light stepped out of her home and into the beauty that is the Land of Sakura and Sunlight.

Ariadne sat up in the Land of Anima and Hallowed Halls. Her room, strangely, was gone. Perhaps the fact that it, at the time, was no longer a room had something to do with that. Scattered around her were different machines- the Cruxtruder, Alchemiter, Totem Lathe. Beyond was- stained glass?   
Rising to her feet, she stared in awe at the magnificent cathedral around her. Marble pillars and walls of gold, and stained glass windows.   
She touched the oaken door, and it swung open with ease. She stepped into a world with no ground. Clouds shifted underfoot; light, buoyant, they propelled her onwards with every step. A hundred glowing balls of light- she knew, somehow, that they were wisps, souls of the dead- surrounded her, flitting around in circles, then jettisoned away on tangents, only to be replaced by others. Millions of them floated high above, and, realized only when she looked closely at the clouds, far below as well.  
Then the chat beeped, and reality shattered the illusion. “Yeah?”  
“What did you prototype?”  
“My folder. Why?”  
“That… oh. Okay. That’s good.”  
“Why?”  
Daedalus explained his error, then asked, “Didn’t Zephyr tell you about it?”  
“No… He was supposed to?”  
“Yeah, he was. Well… I’m sure he has a good reason.”

“Uriel, you can’t do this!”  
“And why not?”  
“You don’t get it. How powerful he’ll be afterwards.”  
“No, that’s the idea! I modded it so that instead this will alter my world, not the Black King!”  
“No, you don’t understand. You’re messing with the coding of universes. You are trying to change things. If this goes wrong- and it will go wrong- you could destroy our session.”  
“Hah. Our session is already doomed, anyways. We have three players doomed. That’s even before I enter. Once I do, we’ll be that much more damned.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“When we all enter, the battlefield achieves its final form. That’s when things will begin moving.”  
“How do you know all this?”  
“I am the Oracle.”  
“Oracle- what?”  
“The Oracle of Faith. That is my title.”  
“I don’t understand- just go back belowground, prototype something different, enter regularly. Come on. Please.”  
“No. I have to do this.”  
“Please- do it. Uriel! Stop!”  
Uriel glanced into the sky and watched a nuclear missile fly high above him. “Sorry mate, not today.”  
He closed his eyes, and forced the hand of hope. Tendrils of salvation screamed out, pierced metal, gutting the missile. Pieces of metal and electronics impaled the earth around him, blowing craters into the field’s surface and cutting through trees. The warhead tumbled down, landing in the glowing sphere of morphing light that was the kernel.  
The kernelsprite sucked it in, and turned dark green, occasionally bursting green. It reshaped, assuming the mold of the warhead. Uriel smiled. It was working. All he needed to do was put in the disc he now held in his hand. A game. 

Zephyr slammed his fist into the computer screen, shattering it. Blood flew everywhere, cuts blending into his dark skin as his screamed into the microphone.   
“Uriel!”

Uriel sighed and flicked off his headset. He tossed the game into the missilesprite, and watched as it assimilated the game and became a representation of freedom. It morphed into a beast of plutonium and lead and data, all swirling around within its green-lit cloud that was its body.  
“Come. Let us enter The Medium.”  
“Yes, Oracle.”  
///Emergency Transmission End\\\\\  
|||Anomalies detected: Fourteen|||  
\\\\\Please Alert Closest Authority///


	6. Corruption I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter of Arc 2, Corruption.

Far away, in the Land of Servers and Data, a bruised, battered, battle-scarred man leaned against a wall. His clothes had been torn apart by the imps, and blood dripped from a multitude of wounds, but he had survived, and won by some miracle. He leaned his head back, and laughed.   
“Have you recovered yet?”  
“Not yet, 01.”  
The female 1/5thspartansprite nodded, then carried on her patrol. The leader, 00, waited beside Daedalus, waiting for when his wounds had healed and he could continue deeper.   
Daedalus stood anyways. Doubling over, he coughed, a tiny drop of blood slipping from his lips.  
“You should rest more.”  
“No… we can’t afford to. Not with Uriel’s betrayal.”  
“So you plan to charge into the darkness without enough strength to fight off a single imp?”  
“He won’t need to.”  
The light he held illuminated Cerberus, and he reached down and helped Daedalus up.  
“Are you alright?”  
“No, not especially… I’ll be fine. Thanks.”  
“Yeah.”  
“What happened to your world, then?”  
“Had a problem. The wolves, Dogesprite- not that I could actually understand anything he ever says, I don’t know what I was thinking when I used that picture for the second prototype- they’re hiding something from me. The wolves tried to make me a God Tier, but they wouldn’t tell me what I had to do other than sleep. It got violent, so I left. They don’t remember who I am anymore, so they can’t come after me. But I’d still end up running into them if I stayed, so…”  
“So you came here.” Daedalus nodded. “Well, that’s fine. I’m happy for the companionship.”  
“Thanks.”  
“Of course.”   
Cerberus was a fair amount taller than Daedalus, though equally thin. The two lankiest players, one limping, the other standing tall, illuminated the darkness.

Finding the second staircase, the pair descended deeper into the Land of Servers and Data. The second floor was much like the first- swathed in shadow, massive dark pillar-blocks extending from the floor to the ceiling. The only difference was that now, it seemed darker- and now, the blocks were closer together. They traveled in the direction of the next staircase.  
“Fourteen hours into the game… I suppose that means that Uriel has entered, now?”  
“Nah, I asked Zephyr about it earlier. He said Uriel hasn’t entered- yet.”  
“Oh. Wait, I thought Zephyr broke his computer.”  
“Nah, he had a backup computer. Four, actually.”  
“Who needs four backup computers? I mean, one backup, that’s understandable. But four?”  
“I know, seemed crazy.”  
“Huh… Ah well.” Daedalus glanced around, carefully observing for any sign of movement. “It’s gotten quiet since the spartansprites left.”  
“Nah, it’s been the same. It’s gotten darker, though.”  
“Or lonelier…”  
Cerberus reacted to a noise- his knives seemed to fly into his hands, and he was ready for combat. “You may be right on that,” he said as the shapes closed in on them.  
A horde of imps charged from the shadows.  
A katana swung towards Daedalus. It collided with the keyboard, bouncing neatly off. Daedalus rolled under the next swing, and hit it from behind. The imp spun, slashing again. The blade cut through Daedalus’ chest as he jumped back, and a few drops of blood floated in the air as he charged.   
He swung the keyboard as hard as he could, and the imp teleported behind him.  
“What-“  
The katana cut off a bit of hair. Daedalus decided to stop thinking.  
The imp lifted its blade into the air, surrounding it and itself in an abyssal black aura. The blade flew towards Daedalus, who ducked. As it slowed behind him, he charged. With a scream, he lifted the Porcelain Board, slammed the imp into a wall, pushed the keyboard as hard as he could into its neck.   
Behind him, the blade had stopped spinning, and was slowly aiming at him. It sliced the air, whispering towards him.  
At the last moment, he dodged the blade, and it pinned the imp to the wall. It screamed, then burst into grist.  
Daedalus, breathless, turned to see if Cerberus needed help.   
“You done yet?”  
Cerberus casually collected grist from the massive amounts scattered across the floor.  
“How… how?”  
“Wasn’t too hard. I mean, it’s not like it’s the Black King himself.”  
“But… but… What?”  
“Come on, let’s keep moving.”  
Daedalus stood agape a moment more, then shook his head and caught up.

They had reached the fourth level of the Land of Servers and Data.  
“You feeling alright?”  
“Huh? I- yeah.”  
“Okay…”  
The oblivion that was shadow had overtaken everything. A small circle around them was illuminated; not even the massive blocks could now be seen through the shadow.   
“Shadow isn’t supposed to be like this…”  
“Nothing’s supposed to be like this. We’re trying to save the human race by creating a new universe when our own was literally decaying away. We’re playing a game where one of our closest friends betrayed us to go do whatever the hell he’s been doing, and of all things the thing you think about is the shadow?”  
Daedalus considered the speech, then nodded. “Fair enough. Let’s keep moving.”

Reaching the fifth level, the pair decided to rest a while.   
“So you’ve had this thing for a long while and just haven’t used it?”  
Daedalus and Cerberus built up the titanium tent-fortress. Daedalus replied, “It’s hard to set up. I couldn’t do it alone.”  
“So… it was useless until now.”  
“Pretty much, yeah.”

The pair stepped inside of what was suddenly an expansive fortress.  
“Bigger on the inside?”  
“If we’re going to have a screwed up session because of me, I might as well take advantage of it.”  
“You used Doctor Who somehow, I assume?”  
“Indeed.”  
“Gonna tell me how?”  
“It’d take too long. Your room is over there.”  
He pointed to the left, at one of the seven iron-faced doors.

Daedalus fell asleep, and opened his eyes. Sitting up, he wondered why he had purple pajamas on.   
“Huh? Oh, I get it. Lucid dream. Okay. So… I should be able to…”  
He concentrated, and a small green cube with rounded corners popped out of the air. “Not what I wanted.”  
He tried again, and a green cube-shaped pumpkin with rounded edges popped out of the air. On the third try, he materialized an apple.   
He cheered- and then realized it was made of the same material as the cube.  
“Gah…”  
Cerberus floated through the window, and into the purple room now filled with cubes.  
“You here?”  
“Huh? Oh hey, you showed up.”  
Cerberus, confused, continued. “Okay, so far, I’ve done some investigating. This is a planet called Derse, a long ways out from Skaia.”  
“Okay, sure.”  
“Are you actually awake?”  
“No, of course not. This is a lucid dream. Isn’t it?”  
“No. Wait, is that how all these things were made?”  
“Yes. But I succeeded in making an apple, finally. Just had to think harder.”  
Cerberus tried thinking very hard for a minute before abandoning the insane notion that he could think objects into reality.  
“Okay, this isn’t a dream. Come on, we’re still in the Medium.”  
“Alright, I’ll believe you, but expect a quiz when I wake up.”  
“When we wake up?”  
“Sure.”

Lucifer’s head appeared at the window.  
“Oh, hey guys.”  
“Huh?”  
“So everyone here’s awake.”  
“Somebody explain.”  
Lucifer floated in, alongside Fenris, Loki, Thor, and Horus.  
“And now we’re having a party. Great. I’ll go think up balloons.”  
Daedalus shut his eyes, and a variety of balloons appeared, most with the words “Get out” printed on them.  
“Oops.”  
“Wait, how did you do that?”  
“Do what?”  
“Make balloons.”  
He shrugged. “Not sure. I still think I’m dreaming.”  
“You are dreaming. But this is real, too.”  
Horus repeatedly tossed his lighter into the air, catching it as it came down. “This is Derse, where the Black Queen resides.”  
“Wait, we could go kill her right now?” Fenris cocked his Fang, and stared out the window at the Dersites far below.  
“No. We’re nowhere near powerful enough yet.”  
Thor made a ‘consider this’ gesture. “We could just sacrifice a few people and kill her.”  
“No; these forms are useful. We don’t know how yet, but they are.”   
Then Cerberus fainted.  
“Huh? Well, if it was just when he was going to wake up, then okay. Otherwise, I should wake up right about-“  
“-Now.”  
He stared at the megalithic ogre towering above him, Cerberus caught in one hand. “Wonderful.”  
He dived, and the ogre’s claymore came down, crushing the last piece of the fortress. Daedalus noted the tent itself had been crushed- that must have released everything else in it. A major design flaw.  
He had to again remind himself to stop thinking when the claymore blew a gorge into the ground in front of him.  
Daedalus realized something, between dodging crushing blows and all else. He couldn’t beat this enemy without thinking. He had to think.  
Yes, that was it. Think.  
The claymore swung upwards, cleaving apart a block. As it swung down, Daedalus stood motionlessly, eyes shut. A shield appeared above him. He opened his eyes.  
The claymore cleaved straight through the shield and sliced through his ribs as if they were butter.   
“Wha- what?”  
He took a step backwards, stumbled, fell.   
Dead.   
Cerberus, long gone, reappeared behind the ogre, and thrust in. His dagger dug deep into its neck, and it fell to the ground and burst into grist.

Daedalus awoke. A few feet away, Cerberus was wiping off his mouth, a pile of vomit below him.  
“How am I still alive?”  
“I’d rather…” He heaved again. After cleaning up, he continued. “Let’s just not go into the details.”  
“Uh… Okay then.”  
“Let’s just keep moving. Quickly, please. Let’s just- let’s go.”  
Cerberus almost sprinted into the shadow.  
Daedalus looked from the vomit to his friend in the distance, then, still confused, followed.

Uriel pressed F5, and his computer whirred as the program was converted into binary and turned into an .exe file.  
He ran the client, then spun eighty degrees to the second computer. He hit enter, running the server. The two connected, and he smiled. Standing, he walked to the Alchemiter on the far side of the room.   
Everything around was illuminated by the emergency lights surrounding the reactor that powered the bunker. With the same soft grin, he lifted up the tiny golden leaf, and gently tore it in half.  
///Emergency Level One\\\\\  
\\\\\Evacuate Bunker Now///


	7. Corruption II

Zephyr woke in the Land of Hazards and Gale, an imp standing above him. His sword was guided by instinct- the imp crumbled instantly.  
He rose to his feet, and looked out over the edge.  
Far below, as always, was the surface of his world. The sphere of stone spun slowly, and, from his vantage point high above, it seemed unimportant. But from it came the life of his world, and without it, his world would be dead.  
Platforms drifted through the sky around him, passing by without care, without worry. As Zephyr looked up into the sky, he grew worried. Above him, between his planet and Fenris’s, was a… something. It was invisible- it didn’t exist, even, he thought- but occasionally, the stars would shake, there where Uriel’s planet should be.  
He signed in, and messaged Fenris.  
“Hey, you open to chat?”

Zephyr strolled across a bridge of rocks. Before him, platforms rose quickly. Behind, they fell to the ground. Up ahead, he could see his quest bed floating above one of the numerous temple-ruins that dotted his land.  
“I dunno… That’s the thing. You knew Uriel better than I did, didn’t you?”  
“Yeah. I was the one keeping him and Lucifer from killing each other all the time.”  
“Do you have any idea why he went rogue? Why he hasn’t entered yet? And- especially this- what he meant by ‘Oracle of Faith’. That isn’t even a class, is it?”  
“Not that we knew about, at any rate. As for the other questions…”  
Fenris trailed off. Finally, as Zephyr reached the far side of the trap bridge, he continued.  
“He wouldn’t betray us if he didn’t have a good reason for it. I know that for sure.”  
Zephyr stopped in front of the ruin door. The symbol of breath adorned the front, and, in the center, a palm-shaped hole was dug into the stone. “Okay… thanks.” A sudden tremor thundered through the air, knocking him off his feet. “Woah, what was that?”  
“It… can’t be.”  
Zephyr spun around, craned his neck to look into the sky.  
Far above, between the Land of Hazards and Gale and the Land of Squares and Stars, the Medium was cracking.  
A crack in space appeared- then was beaten open. It spread violently, blowing a massive hole into the Medium. Spacetime warped, compressed, then burst forth in a destructive wave. The clouds of Skaia dissipated, blown away by the gravitational tsunami. Prospit was thrown backwards in orbit, flashing past Skaia and warping the battlefield with its gravitational pull.  
The wave hit Fenris’s land first. The close side was punched in, leaving the core exposed and crystalline debris rushing through space.  
Zephyr spun, shoved his hand into the door, and squeezed through as it opened. He charged up the staircase, reaching a pillar of atmosphere. Jumping, he flew up to his quest bed.  
And then, as he grabbed the edge, the wave hit. The sky turned dark, distortion and corruption warping out any light he had. Islands all around cracked apart and fractured, exploding into fragments that were thrown everywhere. The core, far below him, was obliterated, turning from stone to dust.  
His quest bed started falling. He struggled to pull himself up.  
And only then did he see it, as his hands slipped and he fell.  
Only when he slipped did he see T̥̈́h̦̏e Ḷ̀a̮̒n̢̈d̐ ̤̕o̔f̟̑ ̭̽P̙̀è̯á̭c̡̔e̦̾ ̢̈́and̥̈ ̆ͅUtọ̈́p̣̃i̦̓à̰.

In the center of a valley of corrupted data and mismatched ground, a lead cube burst into existence. The seal, a blast door ten feet thick, slid open with a banshee’s screech.  
A foot pressed into the dust, and corrupted atoms encircled the foot of Uriel. He looked out across his ever-shifting land, spun around, and stepped back into the reactor chamber.  
He stepped out again a few moments later. A tower had spawned atop the reactor, and, above it, a swirling portal awaited his touch.  
The Oř̨a̾ĉ̡l̈́ę̿ õ̯f̪́ ̉F̹̕ą̇ith had entered the Medium.

On the far side of The Medium, in the Land of Age and Decay, the Mage of Time watched as the tsunami hit. A tiny hole was blasted into the sand, and a few particles spread in every direction.  
Kronos looked from the miniscule aftermath to what was left of the Land of Hazards and Gale. A billion pieces of rock and earth floated out across space, drifting away from what had been a planet.  
Most hadn’t fared as badly. The first few worlds it hit – Squares and Stars, Hazards and Gale, Prospit- had acted as a buffer; their gravity counteracted the wave, held it back. Weakened it, to an extent. But that didn’t stop it from wreaking devastation across the whole Medium.  
All of the planets had been damaged to some extent, save the three on the far side of Skaia from that… thing. Kronos’, Helios’, and Daedalus’ worlds had been untouched, but those were the only ones.  
But, Kronos understood, as he felt time bend and strain, only now was their session beginning.  
///Emergency Level One///


	8. Corruption III

Fenris tried again.  
“Zephyr, are you there? Zephyr!”  
No reply, as he had dreaded.  
Gritting his teeth, he hanged his head and ended the chat.

Twelve icons lit up against the wall. There were two other icons in the chat- one was shaded grey, and read “Online”. The other was dark. It read “Offline”.  
Fenris began. “You all know why I called this council…”  
Kronos cut him off mid-sentence. “If it is important, then cut the clichés and get to the point.”  
“We need a plan. About him. Uriel.”  
Ideas flew, but none were voiced. Some things cannot be done to friends- murder is one.  
The first to voice it was Lucifer. “We kill him.”  
“You can’t just say-“  
“And why not? That’s the only way. He’s always been stubborn. He won’t change.”  
Daedalus interjected. “First off, we should keep that near the end of possibilities, can we please? I’d rather not kill a friend.”  
“And what would you suggest we do?”  
“Uriel’s never acted without reason. He’s a logical person. He thinks things through.”  
“So you suggest we?”  
“Find out. His reasons. Why he’s doing this. Let’s take a vote on it, shall we?”  
Systematically, ten icons lit green.  
Two were left. One flipped red. Lucifer’s.  
The last one was Horus’s. “When we find out his reason, what is your plan?”  
“React appropriately.”  
“And if that means killing him?”  
“Then… Then so be it. Let’s just… just hope it doesn’t come to that.”  
“Fine.” Horus’s icon, too, flipped green.

He stepped out of his home, and into the Land of Squares and Stars. The crystalline pillars of his land sparkled and burst with the light of the setting Skaia, and the stars appeared as the last vestiges of light faded.  
Fenris watched, as night fell, hordes of ogres appear, charging him across the vast plains.  
Fenris drew his Fang, and Mechsprite prepared to attack.  
The front lines reached them, and Fenris pressed his fist into the nearest ogre. It dissolved apart, and he fired through it and pierced the line. A blast of energy incinerated another slew of ogres as Fenris spun, firing Fang again and again. The modified rifle punched holes through them without mercy and without reprieve.  
The Prince of Form was entranced, slaughtering hordes without end, battling without thought. But no man can win forever. Finally, an ogre struck him in the back. He stumbled, and another blade hit him. Fenris, blood covering one eye, leaning against the ground, with a last angry glare, punched his hand into the pillar he stood on, and dissolved it away. As he fell, his expression was one solely of spite.  
He dropped into the abyss beneath the surface of his planet. After spending a few moments surprised, he realized that he really should slow down somehow.  
So when he hit the ground, he destroyed the bonds between each atom.  
Bouncing a few feet back up, he allowed the ground to reform as he stepped out. Once it recovered, several imps fell from the sky, landing where he had just been a moment before.  
As he collected the free grist, he glanced up, seeing a massive bed atop a tower of stone. Around it, fourteen pillars. Every few feet, the symbol of Form adorned the walls. He ascended the tower.  
Reaching the bed, he felt his symbol across it.  
And then the Black King impaled him through the back.  
He- the king- was seven feet tall, with a thousand swords swirling around him. Black energy whirled around his black-winged left side, and white around his angel-winged right. As he watched, the Black King forced a rock from the ceiling, energy pulsating around his entire body, and brought it down. As he teleported away, Fenris watched the stone fall towards him, crushing him beneath it.

As Skaia set, and the stars came out, the starlight pierced the pillars, refracting and reflecting through them into the deep chamber. Shining circles of light brightened the room, and it began to glow. The ground shook, and the pillars disconnected, shifted. They slid down, and the starlight circles all shifted to illuminate the Prince of Form’s bloodied body. The body floated an inch into the air- then higher, thrown skyward by forces unseen. His clothes pulsed- changed- became the same purple as those of his dream self.  
Far off, Skaia itself glowed deep blue. The symbol of Form burst from the center, scattering light across the Medium. Helios stared at it from the outside shell of his world, and the light illuminated him in the blue of Form.  
On Skaia itself, a legion of Dersites and Prospitians dropped their weapons in combat, and faced the pillar that stood tall over their battlefield. Above it appeared a body, the body of a dead Hero. The Hero of Form was wrenched high, glowing, bursting with light. The blood that had spread across his body disappeared along with the scratched and clawed clothing he had worn. The garb of a God Tier replaced it, and it absorbed the light around him.  
Levitating high above the ground, he sat up. He let his legs drop beneath him, and he slowly dropped to sit upon the tall pillar. It dissolved beneath him, and, as it reached the ground, he stepped out onto the surface of Skaia.  
The armies tried to scatter, but the Prince dissolved the ground beneath their feet, and the troops, Prospitian and Dersite alike, fell deep into Skaia.  
The Prince of Form had ascended, and he had seen their enemy. He had traveled to Skaia and he had destroyed friend and foe alike.  
And he would have continued, had he not received a message.  
///Emergency Level One///


	9. Corruption IV

Helios stepped back into his world. The airlock hissed around him, and he grabbed the guide bar, brace against the wall.  
The door clicked open, and he shoved off, throwing himself into his world. Air pulled at his clothes and slowed him as he hurtled through his planet.  
He had realized it only a minute ago. What he needed to restore gravity to his land, to light the Forge. To finish frog-breeding.   
He should have realized it earlier- his planet was lit by satellites, but they couldn’t power the frog-breeding equipment alone. It would take something stronger.   
It would take starlight, as a matter of fact.  
“Hey, Daedalus, what do you think I could combine to make a big spark?”  
“How big of a spark are we talking about?”  
“A really, really big one.”  
“Ah. You finally figured out what the ball of hydrogen was for, then?”  
“Wait, what? You knew?”  
“You said there was a wall that separated the planet’s oxygen and the hydrogen. After that, it made sense.”  
“You could have told me!”  
Daedalus, a planet over, chuckled. “That’d ruin the fun.”  
“Oh, come on!”  
“Sorry man. Anyways, you don’t need a spark. I bet you’ve already got one.”  
“Huh? Wait, do you mean my God Tier powers?”  
“Yeah.”  
“I thought I already had them, though.”  
“I doubt you have all of them. The spartansprites said- well, they implied that you and Kronos are a lot stronger than you should have been.” Helios squinted. What?  
Before he could reply, however, an imp tackled him from behind. Helios was launched off-course, slamming into the sphere of metal that protected the core. Breath rushed out of his lungs, but before he could catch it, the imps had caught up. They surrounded him, and brought their swords down.  
Their blades clanged off of the metal, and they searched desperately for the Mage.  
“Looking for me?”  
Ten feet above them, Helios floated, twin pistols in hand. He slowly moved backwards as four shells floated around him. He brought one forward, and pointed the other behind him, and fired.  
Bullets sprayed out, punching through imp after imp. They dissolved into grist as the bullets pinged off the metal. Helios stayed in place, balancing the forces of the pistols perfectly.   
A new type of underling attacked- this one was armed with two full katanas, instead of the short wakizashi that the imps carried. It launched through the air, kicked him, then pushed off a rock, flashing towards him.   
He brought the guns to bear, and blew the Lich away- it pirouetted around them, flash-stepped to his left side, swung the twin blades. Helios brought the pistols up and blocked them, but the recoil threw him hard through the air.  
He sat up in the crater and rolled as the twin blades pierced the stone. He blasted away at the assassin, pummeling it with bullet after bullet, but it kept moving. Step after step, it advanced, bullets passing through it without pause.  
Another flash step, and it reappeared behind him. He spun, punching bullets through its head.   
It stared back at him as the scarred face rebuilt itself, muscle and flesh knitting together in a moment.   
Helios couldn’t win a straight-up battle, not with this enemy. So, instead, he activated his Fraymotif.

After devastating yet another swath of his world, Helios pushed from rock to rock, making his way back to the core. The debris floated endlessly away- the twelfth crater, now. But the first successful in-combat use, at least. That was good.  
He reached the gate, and it slid open for him, then, as he floated through, slammed shut. The rocks pinged into the metal, covering it.

He inspected the million levers and buttons. He could figure this out- same as he had figured out where his cohorts were.   
He closed his eyes, and concentrated. He could do it. Wait, that was it.   
Rushing through the airlock, he passed into the hydrogen of the star. It tore at his eyes, but he had to keep them open. His breath built up- he couldn’t hold it too much longer, but he could get to his Quest Bed before then.  
He floated forward, reaching the Quest Bed. Letting go of his breath, he felt the hydrogen rush in, fill them, as he laid down. Gasping, he felt it rush into him, permeating his body.

Far off, Kronos stepped out of the desert and into the cracked plains that lay beyond it. Nothing could be seen for miles. And then, suddenly, nothing at all could be seen, for Skaia glowed black.  
Darkness radiated out, and covered the lands of the Medium.  
Far off, on the battlefield of Skaia, the White King, swords spinning around his lithe body, watched as the Tower of Space spit out waves of shadow that drenched everything. Skaia, for a minute, turned black, and the Mage of Space ascended. Then, as Skaia returned to normal and light returned to the Medium, the Mage teleported away as quickly as he had appeared.

The hydrogen that filled the sphere compressed, and the lifeless metal around it became charged, magnetic. Pieces slid out, opening to reveal windows, and the Forge burst into life as a star was born.   
Helios smiled. Of all things, he had created fusion power. He chuckled, then burst out laughing.   
///Emergency Level One///


	10. Corruption V

Cerberus and Daedalus stood in the aftermath, surrounded by grist.  
“You alright?”  
“Yeah… I’ll be fine.” Daedalus finished bandaging the gash down his arm and stood. “Let’s keep moving.”

Passing through the stairs, they reached the final level of The Land of Servers and Data. Shadow entranced, coating and coaxing everything left. A single pillar of blue light, far ahead, a beacon in darkness, was the only landmark.  
“We’re almost there.”  
“And then? When we pass through, to the core?”  
“We’ll find out when we get there.”

Helios reappeared next to Kronos. “Hey, I need your help.”  
“Ah, I see you gained your God Tier powers.”  
“Yeah. I need your help with the frog breeding.”  
“Mm… Fine.”  
“Thanks. Here, take my hand.”  
"Nah."   
"Dude, come on. Just grab my hand."  
"No. You made it sound weird."  
"Just grab my god-damn hand."  
Kronos sighed, gripped his friend's hand as tightly as he could. The pair disappeared as a black hole devoured them, disappearing behind them. 

“So this is your planet.”  
Kronos stood on a pile of earth and trees. Far above, a metal sphere encapsulated the Land of Flips and Frogs.  
“I thought you had no gravity?”  
“When I lit the Forge, Skaia decided to turn it back on. So everything came collapsing down.”  
“Huh.”  
Like a capsized ship, bits of Helios’s home stuck out of the dirt. “So everything you had in there?”  
“Gone.”  
“So where are we going?”  
Helios grinned and lifted up his arm. A pillar of earth and wood and stone erupted from the ground. He tossed it aside with a casual wave.  
“There.”  
Kronos stepped to the hole and looked down. Deep below was a blast door. “Good. Let’s get going.” He jumped in without a second thought.

They reached the blue pillar to find, interestingly enough, an elevator.  
“Wait, if they had elevators, why didn’t they just make an elevator all the way down here?”  
“Too easy.” Cerberus hit the call button, and the glass doors slid open. The pair stepped in. “Remember? This is about growing. So you had to face all of those trials to get to here.”  
“I realize. Was trying to make a joke. Crappy joke, I know, but still.”  
The elevator dropped a few feet and gravity fell away. Passing through twenty feet of electronics, the elevator came to a stop and clicked open. A bell went off.  
Daedalus pushed out of the elevator, and came face-to-face with his denizen.  
“So, you are the Hero of Mind, I see.” Behind him, Cerberus was paralyzed, held motionless by thought.  
“You are the one meant to either slay me or make a choice.”  
Daedalus, motionless, forced words through his teeth. “That’s a choice in itself.”  
The massive dragon, long body coiling around the room, stared into his eyes. Then, deep within, a growl burst out. It laughed, and a wave of heat washed over Daedalus. “Yes, I suppose it is.”  
Then it jerked, and hundreds of feet of flesh wavered, slamming into walls and crushing computers.  
“I give you two options. Do you wish to hear them?”  
Without hesitation, Daedalus responded. “Yes.”  
Cerberus, trapped inside the elevator, immobilized, had heard nothing. The growls of the beast made no sense to him; he had heard only what Daedalus replied.  
“I’ll do it,” said Daedalus, and glowing light surrounded him. Electricity arced between the threads of light, and the dragon moved aside. Daedalus flew by, stopping in front of a console. Manipulating buttons and typing, lights began flickering. He hit enter, and was again pulled away.  
He flew to another corner, where a large generator sat. With a touch, the light and electricity drained from him, and the machine started up. The room went from the red-lit emergency lighting to a soft green.  
Daedalus disappeared, reappearing next to Cerberus. The elevator slid down into the ground, and once more the core was silent.

The frog floated away, and Kronos swore. For the fourteenth time, he used his power, and the frog returned to his side and into his hand.  
It had been a month for him. The pair had decided to breed the Genesis Frog in as short a time as possible, and thus far Kronos had been integral in this plan. Having gained incredible control over his power, he could now revert time instantly and to whatever degree he chose. And more, for that matter.  
The frog, he saw, had no major destiny in its life. He dissolved it, and the dust from it spread out across the room.  
The next ten were the same, he saw. So he skipped and went to the eleventh, which was the one he saw he needed.  
The next he needed, he saw, was 402 away.  
He grabbed it and returned to the place he had been an hour ago, in the Forge’s Shell.

The elevator opened, and the bell again rung.  
Daedalus and Cerberus stepped back out into a land that now was coming back to life.  
The server blocks that filled the land lit, and soft green flooded the streets. Tiny bundles of data floated around, conversing, speaking to each other.  
Above, on the surface, the Spartansprites watched as the ground opened beneath Daedalus’ home. It cracked, split apart, then fell into the hole. It spread wide, and a city rose to the surface.  
On the seventh level, deep below, the ground beneath their fit flickered on, and all the world was illuminated. No more was it foreboding and shrouded in shadow. It was alive, and the Land of Servers and Data had been restored.  
It was awake, and alive.  
A few parcels of data flew up. “Welcome, Hero.”  
“Hello. What is my task now?”  
“You are to return to Derse.”  
“Sleep?”  
“You can sleep no more. Your dream self is dead.”  
“That explains the nightmares, then. Okay, how will I get there?”  
“Your companion knows the way. Ask for he who is the Hero of Space.”  
“That I will. Thank you.”

The Genesis Frog floated up before the pair. Finally, after what was a half hour for Helios, and two months for Kronos, it had been completed, helped in no small part by their excessive grist stores that Cerberus had collected.  
Helios’s chat beeped, and he turned to face the plasma screen on the wall.  
“Huh? What’s Daedalus want?”  
All that was on the screen were two words.  
Daedalus: Derse.  
A moment later.  
Daedalus: I need to get to Derse.  
Daedalus: Quickly.

“I can help with that.”  
///Emergency Level One///


	11. Corruption VI

Kronos returned to his land, and looked into the sky to see the Land of Servers and Data awaken. A green light poured out, illuminating the sky.  
Skaia glowed green alongside it, and the swirling symbol of Mind appeared within.  
The Soul of Mind had awoken, had arisen.

A wave of fire leapt through the Land of Anima and Hallowed Halls.  
The corruption had damaged the land at points, she noticed. Michael, as she had named her sprite, had explained to her that Lands were meant to be only five words, not six. Hers, as many of her session, had been damaged before she had even begun.  
She used it to her advantage, however. She dropped through the corruption, ducking under the wave of flames. Without looking down, she pushed off of the clouds and swung back around, coming face-to-face with Uriel.  
She ducked, tripped him. “Why are you doing this?”  
“I have to. For all of our sakes.”  
He turned to gas and dissipated, and reformed in a shower of light behind her.  
“It’s my purpose.” He thrust his blade forward.

Ariadne awoke in the Crypt. Gold surrounded her in the light-devoid cavern. As she stood, she noticed that her clothes had changed- some wavy maroonish-pink dress. Disgusting. She would kill Uriel when she found him.  
A light spilled into the room, and Daedalus floated in, surrounded by a ring of energy. He wore the same sort of dress that she wore, only it instead was a teal-green.  
“Wait, is this a thing now?”  
“Huh?”  
“The dress.”  
“Oh. No, it’s not a dress. God tier garb. Wait… Oh.” Daedalus swore.  
“What?”  
“Your title. You’re a Soul of Heart, then.”  
“Yeah.”  
“Damnit… Okay... Two Princes, two Mages, and now, we have two Souls… Damnit!”  
“What? What’s wrong?”  
“If there are two of any class… one is doomed. That’s what my sprites said. The same goes for aspect…”  
“Wait… so…”  
“One of us are going to die. You or me. The same goes for Helios and Kronos. And for Fenris and Lucifer. And that’s only the known ones. I’m still not sure about the titles of Odin, Thor, and Loki.”  
“You’re not kidding, are you.”  
“I wish I was. Zephyr told me not to tell anyone… I wanted to respect his last wishes, but I realize that that isn’t going to be possible.” Daedalus straightened. “We need to make sure nothing happens to anyone else. Uriel killed you, then?”  
“Yeah.”  
“On your land?”  
“Yes.”  
“Okay. Could you return there, start tracking him down? I’m going to try and keep the Black King from killing anyone else.” He saw the look on her face. “Don’t worry, he stabbed Fenris on his Quest Bed. Fenris is fine, he’s on Skaia.”  
“Okay, good.”  
“Don’t try and attack Uriel when you see him. Tell Helios, then tell me.”  
“I already tried fighting him once, remember? It didn’t work out very well for me.”  
“Right. Well… good luck.”

Lucifer, in the Land of Clots and Wars, stood amidst bloodied stone and destroyed buildings. Spiders scurried between the buildings, trying to live their lives amidst the destruction.  
He had ascended to God Tier the day before; the Black King had killed him before he could react. Now he was chasing the same king across his land.  
The Black King spun around and stopped. Here, in the middle of a city, he would make his stand. Lucifer grinned, and his own wings spread.  
The Black King’s wings, black and white, spread from the husk of one building to the carcass of another. Lucifer’s were much smaller, and made of metal, but the alchemized wings worked just as well.  
A blade flew down the street, and Lucifer slapped it out of the way with his massive blade. Charging, he reached the space a few feet from the Black King, only to be stabbed through the stomach with another sword.  
A million more swords swirled around the King, more materializing every second. They all flew towards Lucifer, and he was cut through a million times.  
He fell to the ground, and lay motionless as a pool of blood spread around him.

He woke up a few hours later, coated in his own blood. He hit his fist into the ground. He swore he had been faster that time, but the Black King won out again. He got up, and checked the time.  
A few hours had passed. This time, the King must have escaped.  
He got up. If he was to track down the King again, he would have to start immediately.  
Then, as he stood, he saw a light appear in the sky.  
Touching down in front of him, the shadows cast by the tall buildings disappeared in the flurry of light.  
The Oř̨a̾ĉ̡l̈́ę̿ õ̯f̪́ ̉F̹̕ą̇ith touched down upon The Land of Clots and Wars.  
“Uriel.”  
“Lucifer.”  
You could almost touch the love. So warm the connection between them was that they couldn’t even move, and just stared.  
Lucifer moved first. His massive blade flashed, and it collided with Uriel’s rapier. Uriel flashed away, reappearing behind Lucifer. Lucifer spun, and the rapier was slapped away. It skipped off the concrete, tapping into a wall and launching a foot into the air. Lucifer again swung, and Uriel again disappeared. The rapier vanished, and Lucifer spun to block the incoming blade from behind. The rapier pierced through the massive blade, and carved a line into his cheek.  
Lucifer grinned, and twisted his blade. The rapier snapped.  
Uriel, too, grinned, and raised his hand. Light formed around his hand, and the glow that surrounded him materialized into a new sword.  
“Why are you here, Uriel?”  
“Why shouldn’t I be?”  
“Because of everyone here, I’m the one who wants to kill you the most. And you know that.”  
“I’m not here for myself. You should have figured that out by now.”  
“Right… so why are you here, then?”  
“For the team. Out of every player, you are the one most likely to doom our session.”  
“Oh? And how’s that?”  
“I have seen it.”  
“Oh, great Oracle, you have ‘seen it.’ And what does that mean?”  
“Exactly what it sounds like.” Uriel disappeared, and Lucifer slapped away his rapier and cut through Uriel’s arm. Uriel reappeared a few feet back, blood dripping from his now-useless hand. “You think I am calling myself the Oracle for no reason?”  
“Why, then, do you call yourself the Oracle?”  
“Because I am. It is the name Skaia gave me.”  
“Cut the crap, get to the point.”  
“You think my modifications were limited to my prototyping?” Uriel sighed as light wrapped his arm, and flesh knitted back together. “I have two classes and two aspects. Mage and Seer. Light and Hope.”  
“That’s it?”  
“What?”  
“That’s it. That’s the only reason. That’s boring. If you’re going to have some mystical reason for being different, have a good one.”  
“But-“  
“Shut up. We’re finishing this. You already wasted enough time.”  
Gritting his teeth, Uriel forced out the word. “Fine.”

Light and blood arks crashed into each other, bits of each launching across the streets. A million droplets pierced through stone and steel, and Uriel ducked back, his clothing instead pierced. One spike passed through his shoulder, and light enveloped the wound immediately.  
Lucifer shattered the wall of light, slashing towards Uriel. Ducking through shards of vehemently bright energy, he reached him, and punched his hand into Uriel’s chest.  
Deep within, Uriel’s heart burst, and his blood vanished. But he kept standing.  
“How are you still alive?”  
“I have a task, and I will complete that task.” And with the words, he stabbed through Lucifer’s stomach.  
Lucifer jumped backwards, but too late.  
They found themselves, Uriel and Lucifer, in their original positions, now covered in wounds.  
“How are you still alive? Answer me!”  
“The Light.”  
Lucifer waited a moment, then tilted his sword. “What, that all? Fine. I suppose I won’t get any more of an answer from you.”  
He closed his eyes a moment and regenerated. Uriel did the same.  
“Well, let’s get started, shall we? Come on.” Lucifer pressed a button, and his already massive blade doubled in width. “Let’s finish this.”  
///Emergency Level One///


	12. Corruption VII

The Black King fled from the Land of Sakura and Sunlight, his goal completed. Another killed upon their Quest Bed and ascended. He smiled as his thin form shot into space, and towards the Land of Ice and Lightning.  
Soon, all of them would be God Tier, and he could begin the Reckoning. 

He lit the match, and led the air around him to strengthen the flame. A dark bead of sweat was reflected across his skin, but he payed no mind.  
His ensemble of Prospitians and Dersites gathered around him- one passed him a torch. Another, his sword.  
Zephyr sheathed his sword and lit the torch. Holding it out, the others lit their torches, and the cave became bright with the flames.  
He had been lucky- a moment earlier, the Quest Bed would have hit him into space. A moment later, it would have collided with a corpse.  
Instead, he had become God Tier. Quietly, without anyone hearing him. He had fallen off the map, in a way. Same as his land, in fact.  
The Duke of Breath was the peacekeeper. When he could not fill that obligation, he became the peacemaker. 

He stepped out of his cave in the Land of Tunnels and Revelations, and into a circle of wolves.  
“Will you allow us passage?”  
One wolf, covered in blood-matted fur, scars covering its face, stepped forward. “Tell us. What have we lost? What knowledge?”  
Zephyr had learned from Turtlesprite that the cohorts were not meant to be as intelligent as they were; Zephyr had later concluded that it was due to the massive server that was Daedalus’ land. He reasoned with them. “What do you feel is missing?”  
“We- we think we had a Hero. Here. One of you. But now, we remember nothing, and he is gone. From our memories. From our land. Tell us. Who was he?”  
Zephyr marveled- most humans wouldn’t even be able to remember something that was erased past a feeling. The wolves had instead pieced it together themselves. He knew full well what had transpired- learned it from Cerberus’s denizen, no less.  
But he couldn’t tell them, he thought. Instinct compelled him to withhold the truth. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. I wish I could-“  
“Lies! Tell us!” The alpha howled.  
“I can’t tell you. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry.”  
“TELL US!” The alpha charged, tackling him. His blade emerged from the beast’s back, and the pair fell to the ground.  
Chaos erupted around him as he shoved the limp body from his own. Pulling his bastard sword out, he turned to face the next opponent.  
The Duke of Breath forces peace when he cannot make it.

Lucifer and Uriel again collided, and blood and steel flew, exploding with vehemence.  
They parted, again, and the two slid apart. A moment passed, and each slid to their feet. And then, with a scream, they again charged.

Zephyr climbed the rocks, white and black pawns surrounding him. His army was strong, and they could defeat any others.  
He took another step up, and the stones crumbled beneath his hand. Tan dust sprayed down as he fell once more. Visions of what could have been passed by- what he could have been, what he could have done, what his sisters could have been- and one of his recruits grabbed his wrist.  
Jack Noir helped him back up, and Zephyr shook off the memory. Some things should not be revisited.

They passed through the portal and came out upon a vast expanse of cracked earth and sand. On their left, dead, empty land, as far as the eye could see. To the right, dead, empty desert, as far as the eye could see.  
The Land of Age and Decay was inhospitable; hot wind blew against them as hot air held them. Blistering light beat down upon them. Yet they continued.  
“Here it is.”  
Zephyr stepped forward to the gate. The surprisingly-intact ruins- though perhaps they shouldn’t be called that- rose high above him.  
Emblazoned across the front was a disc, and across the disc a single line.  
“A scratch…” Zephyr traced the line, then shook his head. He touched the symbol of breath above and the door slid open.  
“Come on. Let’s keep moving. We’re almost there.”  
The group marched in, and the army of defectors found themselves inside a well-lit hall. Red carpet underfoot, Zephyr approached the land’s denizen.  
“Hephaestus.”  
It looked down upon him. “You are not the hero of Time. Why are you here?”  
“Because my denizen, like my world, is gone. I need help. The Black King- he’s too powerful for any of us to fight. Between him and Uriel, we are doomed. I come seeking advice.”  
“Advice?” The flames obscuring Hephaestus intensified, and Zephyr felt himself begin to sweat. “You come uninvited, early, seeking advice?” The flames burst out, charring the ceiling and walls. Then, suddenly, they fell away. “Fine. Here is your advice: you presume far too much.”  
“What?”  
“You asked for advice, and I have given it. Now leave.”  
“So you mean I am wrong?”  
“Yes. Now. Leave.” The flames began growing again.  
“Okay, okay. Thank you, Hephaestus, for your help.”  
Zephyr left the hall, but, as he opened the door, Hephaestus called out to him: “Thank Typheus, instead.”  
“I will.”

He sent his army ahead, and looked to the sky. He knew now where he was meant to be. Where he was meant to return. The Land of Hazards and Gale called to him, a shattered wreck of what was once a beautiful world.  
He sheathed his bastard sword, and stepped through the portal, and into the destroyed world.  
///Emergency Level One///


	13. Corruption VIII

“I don’t know. I mean, I should. But…”  
“But what? It’s power, and we need all we can get right now.”  
“It’s just that it’s kind of morbid, offing oneself for power.”  
“You’re talking about something being morbid? Bit hypocritical, there.”  
“Meh.”  
Kronos considered his friend’s position, then discarded it in favor of his own.  
“I won’t. Not yet.”  
“Alright… but be careful.”  
“Mm.”  
Daedalus was bothered by the lack of response, but he knew Kronos would at least try.  
Maybe.

On Skaia, the Ace of Blaze stood. Fire cascaded around him in waves- he wasn’t sure what had happened, not entirely.  
The Black King had appeared. He remembered that much.  
And now, here he was, wearing robes of orange and red, standing on Skaia itself.  
Bastet appeared.  
“Are you okay?”  
“Yes. What happened?”  
Helios cut in, appearing behind him. “The Black King. He got Bastet too, but for some reason he’s making us all into God Tiers. Same with Uriel, last I knew.”  
“How many of us are still normal?”  
“Loki, Odin, Thor, Cerberus, and Kronos.”  
“Okay. I need to get back to my planet, though. There’s something there that I need.”  
“I can get us there quickly. What do you need?”  
“You’ll see. It involves both of you, anyways.”

On the land of Ice and Lightning, a massive vault lay open. A rift in space appeared- a tiny crack. It widened, then tore open, revealing the trio.  
Horus was the first out. “Here it is.”  
Helios followed. “What is?”  
“The Armory.”

Within were fourteen weapons. Three swords, a hammer, a rifle, twin pistols. A staff, a scythe. A halberd.  
Helios picked up the pistols. Pointing down the long hall, he fired one bullet.  
A torrential warping passed through space- a crack sped down the hall, and, when it collided with the wall, erupted and shattered space. A billion slowly moving shards of three-dimensional space floated through the air, bits of steel reflected in some, air reflected in others, like a block of solid mirror broken apart.  
Static arced between the pieces, and they stopped moving, then snapped back together. The walls on all sides were blown apart, and Helios was blown off of his feet by the shockwave.  
He was about to land face-down on a rather pointy sword when Bastet activated her power. Light cascaded around him, and the ground just so happened to crumble where the sword had been. It fell, and Helios instead landed forehead-first on a sheet of metal.  
“Ah!” Rubbing his forehead, he berated himself.  
“It was a pretty dumb idea to test it here anyways.”  
“Maybe, yeah.”

“Why won’t you die?”  
“I could say the same to you!”  
The pair again slid back, and once more charged. Their polarized blades, one thin and fast, one slow and fat, collided once more, and once more sparks flew.  
The rapier flashed by, and a line of blood erupted from Lucifer’s shoulder. At the same time, his own blade separated Uriel’s left half. Light surrounded the beyond-fatal wound, and he again healed. Lucifer waited, and, when the wound didn’t heal, became worried.  
Uriel grinned. “So, your healing’s run out?”  
He answered with a swing. Uriel ducked, and rose to see half a rapier.  
“Fine. Don’t need it anyways.” He shrugged and cast aside the blade. It hit the ground and returned to light. His outstretched arm swung forward, and he pointed at Lucifer.  
He opened his mouth to mock Uriel. Blood flowed out, instead. The wave of red stained his brown God Tier uniform, and he looked down upon the spear, embedded in his chest, with a mix of horror and wonder. “H-how?”  
“The Spear of Longinus, I named it. Pretty, isn’t it?” He snapped, and the spear ripped out of Lucifer and returned to his side.  
He stepped past Lucifer, and threw down a board. His clothes whipped around him as he flew into the air. Lucifer, instead, fell backwards.  
A drop of rain fell, splashing into the ground next to him. He became acutely aware of every sensation. A light breeze kicked up, and a handful of dust blew through the air, swirling. Dust of an age passed, dust of the destruction of his land. Dust of the dead, the dying, the lost and the hopeless.  
But then, he realized. It was not hopeless, not anymore. His cohorts were starved; their crops didn’t grow.  
But with rain…  
Spiders scurried out of buildings, staring into the sky. Flowers bloomed across the land, and flies emerged to live once more.   
Grass seeds, beneath the grey dirt and the crimson battlefields, felt moisture, and cracked open. Imperceptibly, they began to grow.  
Spiders once more spun their webs and fed their young.   
Life had returned.

Lucifer felt the raindrops drum on his arms. The downpour slicked his hair back, and he stared into the bloody sky.   
As the last drops fell, the pool of blood around him stopped spreading. It was over.   
As he saw a rainbow spread across the sky, Lucifer let loose his final breath. The carbon dioxide joined the atmosphere, and was eventually purified by the newborn grass. He stared into the once-cloudy, once-crimson sky, watching as the blood of ages past faded away, and, in its place, white clouds and blue sky, and life.  
///Connection Terminated; Attempting Reconnection///  
///PrinceOfBlood.data cannot reconnect to Skaia.exe///  
///PrinceOfBlood.data ejected; insert new data discs///  
///Skaia.exe cannö̰́t récon̟̑nȇ̫c̅t to Skaia.net, retrying///  
///S̔ķ̊ã̰iȧ̳.̻̀ěxë ḧ̹́a̜̔s̩̕ ̤̏enc̫̈oũ̢n̲̔tę́rėd́ ̾å f̭̐a̙̎tal̑ͅ ̤̌err̖̒o̲̕r̫̍; C̲̋ȯ̧n̗̏ṯ̕i̖̽n̖̋ůé̱? ///  
///Šk̇aia.̛̱exe ̮̆ẅ́ȉll ̠̿n̩̔ow̮̑ ̻̈s̩̄hư̬t̅ ̯̀d̓ǒ̱w̍n̰̑. ///


	14. Corruption IX

///Ṡ̠kaia.̨̊exe̺̕ ̩̅e̓ͅnċ̦óunt̯̄er̩̋ẽd ̥̽a ̿fata̕l̲̀ ̜̈e̓r̝̉ró̯ṙ th̎at ̙̏teŕ̳minated̻̃ th̬̓e p̞̒r̮̉ơ̡gr̮̒a̺̒m̗̄.///  
///Ic̫̅ǎ̲r̓ü̖s̰̈́.S̢̐e̘̊s̈s̖̕ion ̲̉ȉ̻s ̤̐cor̨̆r̃ǘ̪p̨̔t̺̽e̊ͅd̖̂; ̝̚a̢̿t̳̀te̅m̑pt Pṳ̏r̞̉g̣̑e?̈́ ///  
\\\\\P̀u̿r̙̅g̥̓e ̠̈́f̈́å̯ȉ̗l̳̉ed̗̂; ̠̽e̞̕rr̢̾ò̗r ̺̈41̺̉3 Ṵ̇ņ̍f̨̂ő̳r̆eş̐e̡̚e̗̔n̽ ̠̐C̉o̜̕m̟̅pĺ̲i̩̿c̐ā̹t̡̓íõn.̥̍\\\\\  
///Atť̹ė̻ḿ̝pt̢̕ ̢̒Quȁ̩r̊a̍n̄t̛̤ḯne̮̓?̬̐ ̈///̫̔  
\̠̔\̪́\̖̌Q̨̔̎ȗ̠̀̑ạ̮̎̔̆r̪̂a̗̍nṫ̗in̟̩̞̫̒̊́̈e fa̳̋ileḑ̲̼̂́̽;̗̂ Er̡̋rő̙̘̠̐̇r ̃4̃13̊ ̗̈́Ǘn̛f̛̟̔ores̛̖̮̋̂ͅë̤̊e̊ņ̗́̋̿ ̞̩̗̀̊̈́̆ͅCȯm̥̌̾p̈́lì̻́c̤̪̊̽̉ả̭̪̙̇̎ẗ́i̡̫̎̔̌o̦̥̅̀̕n\̋\̧̀\̧̋  
̦̓/̓//̈́A̫̩̯̰̎̾̋̿ţ̛̺̘̆̍̃ͅt̯̊̒è̞̤̾̚mp̼̅t ̺̈́E̺̕x̚ćom̛̟̒m̡̩̂̆̈́̑ͅủ̠̮̥̈́̒n̫̊̈ĭcat̏̈́ͅị̌o̱̭̫̼̾̃̾̆ṋ̾̐́?/̛̹/̜̀/̗̒  
͍͒\̇\\\̀Ẹ̢̅̓́x̖̏̚c̨̛̹̹̻̈̀̿om̨̒m̈́unḭ̄̿cầ̧̝̾tḯ̛̯̤̩̌̊o̙̽n̚ ̣̇̆̾ͅFạ̬̬̲̉̏̏̚il̟̔̆̕e̊d̨̰̜̟̃̾́̀;̊ Er̻̞̫̀̄̓̾ͅroṝ̪̖̜̏̀̋ 4̨̥̏̊̍13 U̡̎nfó̢̰̫̦̔́̚r̦̈́́é̺̤́̂seen ̛̯Comp̗̑̕l̜̆̂iç̼̗̈́̍̓̈́â̟t̠̿̃ỉo̾ň̳\̻̚\̳̏\  
̗̔///̈́Att̀e̩̺̺̔̅̆̅m̆p̺̿̚t̢̛̖̼̄̄̃ͅ ̞̈́̈́Re̠̓c̠̋o̱̍v̰̆e̱̽̍r̮̲̼̥̂̊́̀ý̺̥́̂?̛̝́̚/̒//̾ͅ  
̐\\\̫̏\̽R̢̞̍̎̕ĕ̘̞̀̕c̛̺̊̿ơ̢̋ve̢̐ry̕ ̖̒̌s̭̈́̍u̅c̬̀̚cess̹̃̋ful̂; ̉2̣̋8̿0 ő̲f̹̣̞̃̃̾̃ͅ ̕4̚22 e̡̾rṛ̍o̔r̞̈́s ̀s̮̄̍u̻̐̾c̲̹̥̈́̉̇̕c̾ë́ṡͅs̙̈f̢̢̹̈́̃̿̚ully̻̹̅̉̾ ̭̌́́pạ̠̜̑̾̋̕t̏c̢̡̭̓̐̚h̓e̐d\̗̀\\\  
///I̛n̻̈́sẗ̠a̺̽ľ̝l P̤̈́at̂ch̺̍?̹̈́///  
\\\\\Patch install successful; Equilibrium.class successfully initialized\\\\\  
\\\\\Error handling updated; backups created; Equilibrium successfully integrated into Skaia.exe\\\\\  
==\Equilibrium tilted Left; Success projected===  
===Skaia.exe connected with Skaia.net===  
===Skaia.exe has successfully initialized===  
===Medium.dll successfully initialized===  
===ProspitDerse.dll successfully initialized===  
===Land0.data loaded===  
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===Land11.data loaded===  
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==\Warning/==  
==\Land13.data corrupted/==  
==\Code 422 accepted/==  
==\Security countermeasures bypassed/==  
===Land13.data loaded===  
===Skaia has successfully restarted===

He didn’t remember what happened before the blackout; all he knew was that now, everything looked different. Somehow. He wasn’t sure how, but it looked… fresher, maybe.   
Daedalus wiped the sweat off his head, and looked up. The Land of Clots and Wars was beautiful, now, in its living state. Life in death…  
“Okay, we’ve dug enough.”  
Fenris lifted up Lucifer’s still body, and set it down gently. Kronos reverted the entire area to its original state; the piles of dirt disappeared, and Lucifer was swallowed by the earth.   
“Okay… now. What do we do?”  
About what did not need to be said. The eleven knew what- who- was meant.   
Odin spoke first. “I motion that we kill him.”  
Daedalus, shaking his head, replied. “We can’t just kill him, not without understanding. Once we get his reason for doing all of this, then- then we can decide on a best course.”  
“And if he kills you before then? I can’t turn time back like that; I can’t bring someone back to life. If you die, you’re dead. I second the motion to kill him.”  
Horus now spoke. “We should kill him, but we should hear him out first. I’m going with Daedalus.”  
“And if he doesn’t want to be heard? If he just wants to kill us all? We need to kill him before he can kill us!”  
“And then what would we be? Murderers! Just like him. Killing friends without thought.”  
“Two of us have already been killed by him. If you want to die, go ahead!”

As a fight broke out, Zephyr, across the Medium in his own shattered Land of Hazards and Gale, conversed.   
“Child, you are their leader. You must reveal yourself. That is without question.” Typheus paused. “You are weak, yes. Small. Insignificant. But you are the Duke of Breath. And so you must lead them, as you have led your army here.”  
“So what do I do, then?”  
“Your Choice is how you will reveal yourself. You yourself know the choices.”  
Zephyr said nothing. The army behind him waited; some patient, mostly Prospitians; some impatiently. Jack Noir had begun throwing knives at his subordinates, while his Prospitian equivalent tried to dissuade him. So far, none had hit, luckily.   
Zephyr, finally, looked back up at Typheus. “Either I fight Uriel, or you rebuild my Land.”  
“And why these two?”  
“Uriel’s death would validate me as leader, as well as be beneficial to the team. However, it’s risky. He could probably kill me easily. On the other hand…” He opened his arms. “The Land of Hazards and Gale was obliterated. If it rebuilt itself… it’d make a statement.”  
“But…?”  
“But it’d also reconnect Uriel’s world into the chain. The gates on The Land of Squares and Stars were destroyed by the blast wave. So whatever things are loose on his world…”  
“They’d be freed.”  
“Exactly.”  
“Did you ever pause to wonder why he has never ventured on his own world? Why his world’s entry was so cataclysmic?”  
“He was cutting it off on purpose. So whatever is there…”  
“It is your Choice. Do you choose foolish death, or do you open the Gates of Tartarus?”  
Zephyr hesitated a single moment. Then, he chose. “I choose the Gates.”

Daedalus, floating near Derse, watched, eyes wide, mouth caught between surprise and alarm, as the Land of Hazards and Gale reassembled itself.   
Pieces of the calamity-afflicted land flew back into place, guided by a blue aura, and pieced themselves together.  
One of the largest islands, nearest to the Corruption, blown into a million pieces, was resurrected in a matter of moments. As the last bits slid into place like a splinter to a door, it rose back into its place in the sky, and the next piece began its rebirth.  
The core of the Land, once stone, became red-hot, reborn in the fury of the Breath and the cataclysmic blast. It glowed with magma, and flame burst out, like a neutron star, tiny, miniscule, and yet powerful, immense.  
As the last islands slid into place, the planet glowed bright- brighter, now, red and blue with the atmospheric rage of Breath.   
As he watched, Daedalus swore he could see something. Wings. Behind his planet. 

Kronos watched as the massive red-feathered wings curled up, preparing to fly. They burst open, and the core grew, brighter, hotter…

Helios wondered what it meant, this heat, the fluctuations. Matter appearing from nothing; accreting where a shell of a planet had been before. The wings, wide and powerful, scared him, more than anything he had seen. He covered his eyes- the light became too bright to look at. He felt it, burning into his skull, the image of massive wings…

Uriel, his hand shaking, eyes red, looked up at the wings around Zephyr’s planet. The wings spread wide, and with them, a wave of heat and light rushed over the Medium. As he watched, a tear slipping down his cheek, he thought that Lucifer might have liked to see this.  
Daedalus watched as the Phoenix awoke, and felt as the heat washed past him. For a moment, he wondered how he could feel the heat, here where no heat could be felt in the vastness of space. Then it washed over him, and hit the moon of Derse.   
Dersites watched as flame and wings spread. Light and heat rushed forth, cauterizing the surface.  
Loki and Thor sat above the surface, clad in purple pajamas.   
“What’s going on?” Thor watched in awe as the wings spread.  
“Zephyr’s planet just rebuilt itself...”  
“No, not that. I mean the wings!”  
“Huh? What wings?”  
===No errors detected===


	15. corruption X

I take off my headset, and sigh. A few drops of sweat, I can feel, are running down my side, my forehead, my back. Uncomfortable, but understandable. Any mistake back there, and the servers would have blown.  
On the screen in front of me is my charge- each of us, ghosts and all, were given one. We would each look after our charge, make sure he survived. One of us had failed, already.  
My great-grandfather- I suppose to him, I am the ancestor, instead- watches as the Land of Hazards and Gale was repaired. The wave of heat was unsettling- it shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t in the code. And I knew.  
I wrote the code, after all.

Our session, you see, had failed. Entirely. Utterly. We fourteen had entered, and only two of us walked out. I, the Lord of Mind- Icarus. And her, Pasiphae, the Muse of Heart.  
Perhaps that in itself was predetermined. The opposite aspects and ultimate classes were the final two, after all. Normally, they aren’t even in a session with anyone but each other.  
But we were.  
And Skaia punished us for our difference.  
We tried- to survive, to bring everyone back to life. But it didn’t work. Nothing worked. So, in the end, we travelled to the Land of Birth and Growth, the land of Gaius, the land of the Prince of Time. In the end, we Scratched the session.  
Skaia had nothing else to do- ours was a session created out of necessity. Spacetime had begun its degradation, dissolving apart. We entered Skaia as a last resort, and came out without anything to show for it. Our session failed.  
Out that window is our Skaia. What’s left, at any rate. The Reckoning isn’t something that’s easy to take. I at least had managed to direct the power of the Scratch away from our Session itself, but that left just twelve ghosts and two others who might as well be dead, for all the universe cares. It had moved on. Sent the next to their oblivion.  
“They aren’t doomed, you know. Not all of them, not definitely.”  
“And how do you know that, Pasiphae? We can’t know for sure. But I’ve done out the problem…”  
“And?”  
“And their chances aren’t good.”  
“And?”  
I turned to face her. “The chances are everything. It’s what doomed us; we took one too many of them, one too many little hopes that we sent out and that weren’t met, left empty, left dead and gone, and you ask why the chances are important?”  
“They aren’t. Not in the end.” She stepped up to the window. “All our chances fell the way they did because our session was doomed. That’s the reason. They have a chance. Skaia had to accelerate the process for them. They had to be sent in earlier. We were fully grown when we entered. Them? They’re still teenagers.”  
“And how exactly does that reinforce your point?”  
“Skaia could have just done nothing when we Scratched the session. God knows we screwed with enough things to have deserved it. There wasn’t even ectobiology in our session- we’re all naturally born people. Instead, though, Skaia forced the change, forced a swath of time out of place. Tore apart our universe for the sake of a chance.” She turned to look at me. “And if it will do that, then don’t you think that it has a plan?”  
“Whatever its plan is, it’s breaking apart. Their session is corrupted, and in case you didn’t notice, the corruption is spreading. And, since I KNOW you didn’t notice this one, it’s accelerating, too.”  
“I did notice, and that doesn’t matter. Their Reckoning hasn’t begun, and they have something we didn’t. The Land of Servers and Data-”  
“-All it means is that their session takes on that many more aspects of a computer program. Realism is decreased, glitches, errors, inconsistencies, all stack up. It degrades the quality of their session-“  
“-And do you really think that their chances of winning are realistic?”  
I said nothing. There was nothing I could say. Without a sound, I returned to the console. “Wait, how the hell?”  
“What?”  
“He… he figured us out.”

In the Medium, Daedalus smiled. Whispering into nothing, he told his ancestor, “I’ll keep this one to myself, don’t worry.”

Helios appeared on the Land of Sakura and Sunlight. Swaths of cherry blossoms swirled around him, dancing around his feet and his arms.   
Kronos stepped forward. “The petals… he’s been here recently.”  
“Can you see him?”  
“Yes… Follow me.”

They found him beneath the trees, upon the precipice of the crater. His land had caused great devastation… he hoped it would be worth it.   
He stood up. “Why are you here?”  
Kronos, drawing the scythe off his back, answered. “You know why we’re here.”  
“No, I don’t, actually. Are you here to kill me for my sins, or for me to explain them?”  
Kronos, about to answer, was cut off by Helios. “We want to know why you’re doing this.”  
“Or we could kill him. He’s not even God Tier yet, he couldn’t recover.” Kronos swung his scythe, and, as it reached Uriel’s neck, space expanded. It stayed a half inch from his neck, vibrating.  
“I was trying to help us… every event that has happened was to improve our chances of surviving.”  
“But why?”  
“My title… I was given two classes, two aspects. As the Oracle of Faith, I became the Mage of Light and Hope, and the Seer of Light and Hope. Four different titles in one. I can see everything that would have happened in our session. And we would lose if I didn’t start changing things.”  
“So you doomed our timeline, instead.”  
“No. I was meant to do all of this, destined.”   
Kronos struggled to swing the scythe faster through the vast expanse of spacetime that lay in that half-inch, but it was to no avail.  
“So killing Lucifer, blowing apart half our session… destabilizing Prospit’s orbit, corrupting the session. Everything was to help us?”  
“Yes. I’m sorry, but it had to be done.”   
Helios realized, then, that Uriel’s eyes were red, bloodshot. “So it’s all been out of necessity?”  
“Yes… I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean anything, but I’m sorry.”  
The Mage of Time became, then, filled with rage. “Sorry? Sorry? That’s it?” He reversed time, and that half-inch disappeared. Helios shoved Uriel out of the way and blocked the scythe.  
“Kronos! Stop. We’re leaving.”   
“And why should I? He killed one of us! You think he’s going to stop!”  
“Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. Either way, in the end, it works out for us.”  
“Our deaths work in our favor?”  
“You don’t understand- past the Furthest Ring, out in Paradox Space-“  
“YOU don’t understand!”  
“That was a cliché, actua-“  
“Shut up, Uriel.”   
Kronos spun around with his scythe. The back hit Helios’s knee, and a crack resounded through the forest. A few drops of blood sprayed from the back, splashing into the pink leaves. Helios turned his pistols, fired them. Every bullet was absorbed and then deleted from time as Kronos rewound his wounds.  
Their powers held out; The scythe could not touch Helios, but Helios could not create a lasting wound. Finally, Kronos disappeared, rewinding to a time when he was on his home planet.  
Helios waited a moment longer, then fell. Uriel bent down, and touched his broken bones.  
“Agh!”   
“Wait, careful.” Light circled around his finger. “Stay calm.”   
It spread to the bone, coating Helios’s entire leg. The bones snapped back into place, and Helios’s cuts and bruises faded away. Short as the conflict was, it had exhausted him, and he was sure Kronos had begun resurrecting past injuries on him.  
“Why?”  
“Like I said… everything I do is to improve our chances. The session needs you.”  
Helios stood up. “I can’t thank you, not after what you’ve done. But I will repay you.” He looked forward, stabbed his outstretched fingers into space, twisted space open. A patch of air in front of him ripped into itself, and a wormhole opened up. “Get out of here.” Helios stepped through, and it again closed.   
Uriel sat back down, and waited. He couldn’t leave, not yet. He had to watch, make sure what he thought would happen would not.

Helios appeared upon the Land of Age and Decay. Looking out, he saw a track of footprints. He followed them into the desert.  
Finidng a black robe, his anger became directed. He increased the coefficient of friction to an incredibly high level, then, shifting the robe the tiniest bit, set it aflame.  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land9.data now at risk===


	16. Corruption XI

“So where’ve you been, all this time?”  
“Hiding.”  
“And only now you come out, then?”  
“It was my Choice.”  
“Your denizen, then?”  
“Yes. You’ve made yours?”  
“Yeah.”  
“What was it?”  
Daedalus didn’t answer. Instead, he materialized two small hovering platforms, and gestured to Zephyr.  
Zephyr stepped on behind him.  
“I’m going to go fight the Black Queen.”  
“What? Alone?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Need my help?”  
“No, you’ve got a team to run. I’ll be fine. Later.”  
Daedalus snapped, and his platform rocketed into the air, launching into space. 

In the Land of Steel and Storm, Thor waited. The metal ground was cold enough without the blizzard, but he could make do.  
His hammer, taken from the Armory, opened- the sides slid out and revealed a core of magma. Heat radiated out, and the blizzard around him became a rainstorm.  
The Knight of Rage waited atop his Quest Bed- of everyone left, only he, Loki, and Cerberus had not been made God Tiers. Instead, they remained human, both sitting atop their Quest Beds, waiting for the Black King.  
They had realized it a while ago. The Black King was trying to send them all to their God Tiers. Why, they did not know. But he was, and so they awaited their death.  
And so he waited, until the King landed before him.

Horus found himself faced with a Lich. It teleported around him, dodging his attacks. The bolts went through, and the Lich survived unhurt.  
Instead, Horus loaded an incendiary bolt, and fired the crossbow again. The Lich was devoured in the sudden firestorm, and, when the flames faded, left only a pile of ash and some grist.  
Next to him was Thor’s Quest Bed. It began to glow, and Thor appeared on it, dripping blood, as Skaia turned purple.  
Thor brushed off his new uniform. He slid the hood back and spun his hammer around his hand.  
“So all that are left now are Loki and Cerberus, right?”  
Horus shook his head. “No, Uriel hasn’t gone God Tier yet.”  
“And we care if he’s gone God Tier or not?”  
“Speaking of Uriel, I haven’t heard from Kronos or Helios since they went to meet him. Kronos went God Tier, I know, but that’s all.”  
“I haven’t either. It’s alright. Anyways, I’m gonna get back to my world, finish the quest.”  
“Alright.” 

Bastet waited next to Loki’s Quest Bed. Below her, the White King massed his army. They hadn’t noticed her here yet, but it was probably just a matter of time before the awkward idol worship began. 

Cerberus stepped up to his denizen, hidden deep within the caves of The Land of Tunnels and Revelations.  
Nyx twirled around him, and gave him the Choice.  
“I’ll do it… I’ll go God Tier.”  
“And the wolves? What will you do about the rest of them?”  
“Nothing.” He returned the stare of Nyx, defiantly standing against his denizen. “I won’t do a thing.”

The Soul of Mind touched down in the palace of Derse. The ruins of the ceiling were scattered around his feet.  
In front of him, the Black Queen floated, swords spinning around her armored exterior. She only said four words, no more, and they sent the chill of realization down Daedalus’ bones. Realizing that she had known, that she had been waiting for him, that she wanted to fight him.  
“Well? Shall we begin?”  
“This wasn’t a good idea.”  
He activated his keyboard, and a floating board of red lines built itself at his palm. He faced the Queen.  
The battle began as she launched a volley of blades. A shield appeared before each, stopping each sword in its tracks. The Black Queen flash-stepped to behind him, and Daedalus spun around. The laser keyboard blocked the massive black sword, and sparks flew between the abyssal blade and the laserboard.  
Finally Daedalus flew backwards, pirouetting away and creating a massive railgun. The trigger clicked back, and it fired a two ton shell of solid lead. The Black Queen chopped it in half unceremoniously, and, throwing the two halves sideways, blew half the palace away.  
Light poured in through the gaping hole, and Daedalus saw Derse’s moon, far off in the distance.  
“Let’s try a bit more, then.”  
Two more railguns appeared, and all three fired. The three shells glowed red, and all three stopped in place.  
The Queen raised her arm, flicked her red-lined hand up, and the shells returned at twice the speed.  
Daedalus built a sphere around him, and the shells burst against the forcefield. It flickered and died as the blast faded.  
He rose to his full height- the Black Queen still towered above him, but it didn’t matter. He put his full force into thought, his full concentration into creation.  
In front of him, two feet materialized. Then legs, clad in black jeans. A jet-black jacket. White hair.  
Standing in front of him was a girl, tall and lithe. Built into her arm was a dual-tonfa, magnetic and powerful. Scars and burns covered her entire left side. In the other hand, a pistol, and across her back, a staff that radiated an immense magnetic field. Her name was Haven, and she was a character of a story. She was a character from one of Daedalus’ stories, and the centerpiece of a war spanning universe upon universe.  
Daedalus grinned, his trump card revealed. “Now it begins.”

And then, it awoke. A shockwave spawned, washing over all of the planets of the session. The Phoenix that guarded the Land of Hazards and Gale absorbed the blast, and the islands sprung back up as it passed.  
The rest were not so lucky.

Uriel watched from the precipice as the crater was punched deeper. The ground beneath his feet crumbled, and his rocket boots flipped on. Floating above what was now a far deeper crater, as magma seeped into the cracks and broke the surface, he watched.  
The wave wrapped around Skaia, leaving it untouched. Prospit shattered, and fragments rained down onto the Battlefield below.  
The White King watched as his kingdom fell down upon him. He was crushed by the atmospheric compression, flattened before they even hit.  
Bastet stood above the surface as millions of pieces flew around her, leaving her unharmed. She saw the devastation firsthand, and watched as an army was wiped from existence. 

Derse’s moon was blown away- fragments cracked and were thrown into the Furthest Ring. Loki, as the wave hit, floated up and disappeared.  
The Palace was flattened, but their battle went on. Twenty-three figures floated above the dust that was Derse.  
Daedalus looked up at the Corruption. Within, he saw something moving.  
The Queen charged, but Haven stopped her. The Key fired a burst of magnetism into her chest, and a spray of flesh and blood exploded from the Queen’s back. With a gasp of fear, she dissolved into ash, and Haven faded back into nonexistence. But Daedalus remained, alone where once a world had been, looking up at the monster, the demonic beast that lived within the L̦̇a̖̒nd̪̎ of ̠̃Pe̖̊àc̮̅e̕ ̢̊ḁ̍n̦̎d̗̽ ̼̕Uto̦̐piạ̏, within the Corruption.

“What’s… oh god.”  
“What’s going on? What’s happening?”  
I grabbed my head; this couldn’t possibly be happening. This shouldn’t be. “It’s… damnit, it’s not possible!”  
“If it’s happening, it is! Now explain! What's. Going. On.”  
“His- Uriel’s- denizens. Two aspects, two denizens. They were trapped, but now they- it- it's awake. And it… it’s angry.”  
The chat beeped. “What…?”  
I opened it.  
Apophis: I hear you.  
Apophis: I can find you.  
Apophis: And like the rest of them, I will devour you.

A massive snake erupted from the Corruption, piercing through Fenris’s planet and emerging from the far side. It looped around, and, as its tail flicked out, it opened its jaw, and devoured his world.

The Land of Squares and Stars disappeared into the maw of Apophis.  
==\Warning: Land9.data corrupted/==

===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land0.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land2.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land3.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land4.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land5.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land6.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land7.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land8.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land10.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land11.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land12.data now at risk===  
===Warning: Data corruption spreading; Land13.data now at risk===  



	17. Corruption XII

“Well? Are we going to do it?”  
“There’s no other choice. If they are to survive, we have to help.”  
I shut my laptop and unplugged it, throwing the power cable into a bag. “What if we can’t protect them, though?”  
“We’ve failed once.” Pasiphae became fierce- eyebrows knit in determination and anger. “It won’t happen again. Never again.”

Helios approached him.  
Kronos waited, back turned, scythe drawn. His red robes blew in the cliffside gale. “Took you long enough.”  
Helios remained silent. There was nothing to say, not for him.  
“Why did you do it?”  
“Help Uriel? I didn’t. I spared him. It’s something called mercy. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” Helios tensed his fists.  
“He murdered one of us. He murdered Lucifer. Do you think he deserves mercy?”  
“You saw him. He had been crying, all that time. He regrets it.”  
“But if he stays alive, he’ll continue killing us. You know that.”  
“… Yes. I know. But he didn’t deserve to die, either.”  
“And we do?” Kronos jerked around and drew his mirror-black scythe. “We deserve to die, and he doesn’t?”  
“Yeah, maybe we do.”  
“What?”  
“Don’t kid around. You know it, same as I did. We’re the ones who destroyed the universe. We broke it. We tore it limb from limb and caused the deaths of nine billion people.”  
“... We don’t know it was us.”  
“When else have we been wrong?”  
“…” Kronos said nothing. The scythetip drooped at his side. Finally, he continued. “Then now what?”  
“Now, time completes itself. Predestination and predetermination. We never could avoid it, no matter what we thought we could do.” Helios drew his pistols, and regret filled him.  
Kronos held his scythe tighter. He knew that it had to happen. Nothing else could. “If I win, Uriel dies.”  
“If I win, he lives.”  
“And either way, we kill billions for a petty argument that we can’t not fight.”  
“So be it.”  
Kronos appeared at his throat- Helios appeared at his back. Space and time warped and flashed across the barren landscape until the two disappeared from this universe.

Loki, the Spark of Blood, had awoken. Floating above his world, he closed his eyes and located every single underling on the planet. Opening his eyes, he controlled them, and each erupted into bits of grist and bone.

In a place beyond understanding, the two of them reappeared. The scythe slashed into the twin pistols, and Helios shoved it backwards and mashed the triggers as quickly as he could. The bullets disappeared as they reached Kronos, but the blast carried on and blew holes into existence as they flew.  
Kronos appeared behind him, and swung the scythe. Time itself split in two at the edge, and the fabric of time tore apart. He cut the threads of time away, and his scythe again collided with nothing as Helios blasted himself away.   
He pointed his pistols behind him, and fired, ten, twenty times. The shells cracked apart a few miles behind him as he rocketed towards Kronos. He reached back, swung forward, cracking the butt into his friend’s head, firing the gun again and again. Time, again and again, undid his wounds.

Far off, on distant Earth, year 2130, the first clutched his head and fell to the ground. In his future, he saw it- his death in a car wreck, his child’s graduation, his wife’s cancer, all of it, disaster and victory.   
Beside him, another fell to their knees, then another.  
The whole world halted as time, now broken, revealed to them past, present, future, what they were, what they are, what they yet can be.   
A newly-graduated programmer stepped out of the store. As he opened his car door, he saw it. The code to something, the code to a game that would create universes.   
The groceries dropped.   
He saw what had happened, what was yet to happen, what he would become, what would become of his friends, falling one by one without hope of survival or chance to live. He saw his own death, and the death of all close to him. But he knew what he had to do.   
Looking out across the traffic-locked streets, he slipped his keys back into his pocket, and, aware of time’s importance, ran. 

The scythe flashed and chopped away through the space Helios had occupied, but Helios had appeared behind Kronos so Kronos spun and slashed against the blasting pistols, but it wasn’t enough, couldn’t be enough, and so he felt as if he had no other choice.  
The space around Helios began shaking and vibrating, slowly at first, then faster, more destructively. Vision twisted and warped as Helios pinched space together. He twisted, and space wound tighter, tighter still, tight enough that Kronos felt his organs squeezed in the creases.   
And then, Helios let go. Space snapped back into place with the force of a bomb, and three dimensional cracks burst into being.   
Kronos, a line of blood spilling out the corner of his mouth, rose to his feet, and responded with his own. Doomed timelines beyond count wound around reality, and, as mirage and afterimage intermingled around them, time rewound.   
Out of the upper dimensions they came, and floated above Earth. Their Earth, before war and radiation wiped the surface clean. Time wound closer still, and satellites appeared around them, millions upon millions of duplicates. And then missiles, rushing through the sky, yellow-and-black symbol glaring from their sides. Time wound closer still.  
And then it snapped apart.   
July twelfth. The day the world saw what was to be.  
A single pane of time shattered, and, as they faced each other, the cracks spread to the time they now occupied, and slowly crept past.   
Helios charged, but a crack appeared at his left hand- his skin dissolved and his bone eroded into dust instantaneously. Ducking through the cracks, he grabbed his friend. The pair disappeared.  
The star glared into Kronos’s eyes as he forced Helios violently forward through time. Blood still poured from his severed arm, matting his black garb. Kronos coughed up more blood, and stopped pushing through time.   
Three years later, the pair burst back into being.   
Helios forced the star to bend to his will, compressing it into a beam. It snaked around him, and he pushed. The beam ran through Kronos, blowing apart his chest. But now, too, his wounds healed, and the star grew dim as it pierced him.  
As Kronos grew younger and the star grew older, the cracks of time expanded, forced open. When finally the timeline could no longer take the strain, it collapsed, erupted apart with the force of the Big Bang, and the star finally went dark.  
Far off, on Earth, a single light in the sky, a single star, warped, fluctuated, winked out.   
Where it had been, the damaged timeline of three years before rushed forward to meet its present brethren. The cracks neared, then snapped open, sending fragments of time flying in every direction.   
The space around them disintegrated, and fell away, section by section. Black holes widened the rips in space, and, as the universe roared its final breath, Helios activated his second Freymotif. A billion stars appeared amid the cracks and tears, and merged into a ring. It spun, and as it did it grew wider, and Helios, standing in the center, opened his arms. “I’m sorry.”   
The ring froze, and rushed inwards, engulfing the pair in the ultimate inferno. Helios stood as a silhouette, a shadow in Hell’s fury.   
Kronos burned, but time rushed backwards for him. Younger still he grew, until finally the fire faded, and he emerged as a child.   
The black hole, after absorbing all that mass, grew large quickly, expanding massively. Stars orbited around it, now, as it grew. Kronos felt the pull dragging him in, and he once more accelerated time.  
Helios understood what he was doing, and followed suit. The Maw shrank in size, then rushed ahead in time, two years forward. The space where it was was cut away, moved. Then the two disappeared again.

They sat on the surface of the Land of Age and Decay. The cliff edge hanged below them as Kronos coughed up blood. “I lost... I…”  
“It’s over. It doesn’t matter anymore.”  
“Yeah… yeah, it does matter.” He doubled over, and coughed. The ground soaked up his blood instantly.   
“How?”  
“Everything. It all matters. You don’t see it. I do. Everything that will happen… Everything matters. It's coming..." He coughed, and more beads of blood spilled out of his mouth. "It's coming to a point. Apex... I see when it happens."  
“What? You see time? You mean you knew you would lose?”  
“No… I-“ He stumbled, fell to his knees. Rolling onto his back, he continued. “I see everything, now. In a few seconds… I’ll be dead. I don’t want to die, but I won’t… I won’t be gone.”   
“What do you mean?”  
“I… can’t say. But when she arrives-“ He coughed again, and his voice grew hoarse. “Listen to her.”  
“Who?”  
“It’s starting. I..."  
The gear of time turned to ash, and the center of his chest burned away. Deep scars appeared across his body, and the dirt turned red. Then, the wave of red hardened, then began spreading. It moved slowly outwards, accelerating quickly. As it washed over Helios, a few leaves appeared at his side, then a sapling. Trees burst into being as if they never were gone, and tall grass licked at his legs.   
The wave of time washed over the deadlands, and time turned back. The ancient forest, long dead, returned to life as the wave of time washed over it.   
It reached the border of the desert, and the sand became a shore. The dunes became pools, then oceans.   
The ruins turned to temples, their marble walls towering high above the land.  
The palace of the Denizen shined as the dust that had covered it disappeared.   
Within, the red carpets and décor disappeared, replaced by mosaics and frescos. In the center of the room, enclosed within two hemispherical rubies, a diamond platform began turning. It spun faster and faster, and, as wind began rushing outwards, the platform, rubies and all, separated away and rose. It ascended slowly, passing through the oculus above it. The rubies disconnected and split into hundreds of pieces, reassembling into a massive staircase, finally setting into place as the platform decelerated, finally hovering. Wind blew away from it in all directions as it span in the sky.   
Beside a cliff that now overlooked the sea, as Skaia rose above the new world, as death became life and as forests rose from ash and civilization from dust, as the Land of Age and Decay was reborn, Kronos smiled and blew away, nothing more than dust in the wind.  
///MageOfTime.data has now been terminated///  
===Land5.data formatted===  
===Land5.preScratch.data has been successfully loaded===


	18. Corruption XIII

Thor’s opponent, finally, arrived.  
“I thought you’d come for me next.”  
“How’d you know?”  
“Kronos left me a message. A warning.”  
Uriel grunted, then drew his rapier from the light, and pointed it at Thor.

The meteor decelerated quickly; to their dulled sense of time, it was nothing at all.   
“Okay, Pasiphae. You know what you’ve got to do.”  
“Will you be alright?”  
Icarus stepped up to the door, his , the Land of Ice and Lightning was split asunder, and Apophis gorged upon the destruction. “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”  
“…”  
“Pasiphae?”  
“… Alright. Good luck.”  
“It’s fine, thanks.” And, as she flew out of earshot, he murmured, “It won’t help me much anyways.”

“What… what the hell are you doing?”  
Loki stared, mouth ajar, at Odin. His friend leaned back upon a pile of gold, being hand-fed grapes by his Valkyrie denizens.   
“What?”  
“The rest of us are fighting to fix everything that is going wrong, dying for it, and you are sitting here.”  
“Yes.”  
“Being fed grapes by large-breasted mythical figures.”  
“And your point is…?”  
Loki, disgusted, gave a tactically-placed kick to a small goblet. The massive pile of gold came crashing down, and Odin disappeared in a mound of coins. Loki reached out for him, and lifted him up with his power.  
“How are you doing that?”  
“I… I’m not sure, actually. Am I holding you by the friendship? Or maybe it does deal with blood itself to some degree… Anyways, hey. Get up. Let’s go.”  
“But I like it here.”  
“And your point is? Yeah, two can say it. Now stand up and go.”  
Odin tripled in size, and wings of flame burst from his back. He punched his fist into the wall, and a section of the palace came down. “I will not leave, Mortal!”  
“You know, that works on cohorts, but I actually know what your power is. Stop playing God and get moving.”  
Odin sighed, and the fallen section of the palace reappeared in its proper place. He shrank to his normal height, and his wings burned out, leaving a handful of lonely embers in their place. “Fine… Where are we going?”  
“Just come on.”

Cerberus stepped to the village borders. Around the cavern, numerous wolf corpses rotted. The alpha was among them.  
He inhaled, held his breath. Quietly, carefully, he stepped forward. As he did, he felt resistance. The Medium resisted his pull, but he stepped through regardless.   
Opening his eyes, he found himself in the infinite nothing. Yet there was still a shadow of reality- a thin outline, darker shades of black.  
He climbed the tower of darkness, unnoticed and unreal. 

Far above, the Black King lifted his hand. With it rose a massive pillar, thousands of feet tall, built of earth and stone. He cast it aside without a second glance and flew down into the village of wolves.  
They gathered in force, but he waved his hand again, and the entire force froze, heart stopped, brain severed.  
The last of the wolves, a young pup, jumped at the King from behind. It slammed into the armored hide and bared its fangs, sinking them into his neck.   
The pup’s fangs broke. The Black King gestured, and it was seized by unseen hands. The King turned, and faced it as it quivered in fear.

The Monk of Void stepped back through the veil and into reality. He eased back onto his Quest Bed, and drew his dagger.

Skaia let loose a wave of deep purple light, casting the Land of Birth and Growth into Twilight.  
The Muse of Heart softly landed on the planet’s surface and quietly approached the Mage.  
“Who are you?” Helios’s voice was hoarse.   
“Ah, yes, the Mage of Space. I suppose it was useless to try approaching quietly.”  
“No… I appreciate it.”  
“Alright. As for who I am… that will take some time to explain.”  
Helios, still looking over the horizon, across the massive ocean, didn’t reply.  
“You might not believe me…”  
“Try me.”

Icarus adjusted the armor. It wasn’t his best armor, but it was pretty close.  
He sighed, and looked over his shoulder. “What do you want?”  
“Not very kind to your elders, there.”  
“I’m older than you.”  
“And you’re also descended from me.”  
Icarus put down the next piece of armor and turned around. “How did you figure us out, anyways?”  
“The blackout. Before it, the Corruption was far more chaotic. Afterwards, it seemed… controlled. Quelled. It seemed like someone had intervened.”  
Daedalus stepped closer, and leaned on the wall next to Icarus. “Then I started making a theory. I checked the numbers on it… the destruction of space made a very, very sudden jump forward about a year in.”  
“Skaia accelerated the destruction of your world, yes.”

“Why?”  
“So that your generation could enter. It changed the timeline, ripped a swath of time away so that you could enter instead.”  
“Accelerating the death of everything… wait, what do you mean? There wasn’t time ripped out of place.”  
Pasiphae became worried. “Go on…”  
“Where time and space were destroyed was where… where we fought. We were in your universe. I saw your Earth, the 22nd century. Then we ended up above our own Earth, five years ago. It didn’t force anything out of place.”

“That’s impossible.”  
“Twin denizens? He broke the code himself. If, as you say, you couldn’t see us before we entered, then you have no idea. But Uriel’s smart. He was going to enter college early, before everything happened. At 15, he got a perfect score on the ACT. He could do it.”  
Icarus shook his head. “That’s not the point. If he changed the code, he wouldn’t be here. Skaia wouldn’t have let him enter the same session if he did.”  
“And that’s how the shockwave was created. He forced it in.”  
“Then explain the Phoenix. And Apophis.”  
“It’s not possible to understand everything, nor does it all always link together.”  
Icarus, towering over Daedalus, grew dark. Light fled the room, and color slowly bled away until all that was left was a greyscale lab.   
“I am the Lord of Mind. I rule over thought itself!” His voice thundered, and tubes and beakers resonated, ringing loudly. “Do you dare speaking down to me? You depend on me for power!”  
“Not exactly.”  
Icarus’ jaw fell open. “What?”  
“See, I depend on you for thought the same way a business would depend on the Mafia for ‘protection.’ You could kill me or cripple me, but that’s the only way you could control my mind itself. Sure, though, you could take me over, but you know full well that that’s not an option, as it would take away my ability of creation.” Daedalus paused long enough to blow apart an approaching lich. “Also, I don’t speak down to you. Only equally.”  
“Right…” As the enemies crowded around, Icarus lifted his hand, summoning a keyboard. A few words typed turned a lich into a pile of grist as hellfire consumed it.  
“Live coding? Couldn’t that damage the session?”  
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, yeah.”  
A wave passed through the room, and Daedalus stumbled. His knees hit the ground, hard, and he heard a loud crack and felt a sharp pain.   
He felt a warm liquid- blood, probably. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, and rebuilt his broken bone, replacing broken flesh with steel.  
He rose slowly to his feet, and drew up a wave of daggers as quickly as he could.  
Instead, he found piles of grist.  
“What… where did they go?”  
“It killed them.”  
“It?”  
Half of the meteor was ripped apart, and, as the fluorescent lights exploded above them, eyes emerged.  
Two black and white eyes, pulsating and changing with the effects of Corruption, and Daedalus found himself staring into them. For the first time, Daedalus had felt true terror, beyond that of any cliché, beyond that of mortal terror. In the back of his mind, thoughts fled, and were replaced by the word ‘run’. His muscles screamed ‘fast’, and his eyes screamed ‘now’. His tongue screamed.   
“You.” The voice of Apophis, devourer of worlds, hit with the force of a hammer. Daedalus stepped back under the force.  
Icarus stepped forward, instead.  
“You are Apophis?”  
“You are the one I will devour.”  
Icarus cracked a smile, then began giggling. Laughing maniacally, he bent double and roared.  
“What folly possesses you, fool?”  
Stifling his outburst, Icarus looked up at Apophis again. “Because. You have no idea who is attacking who, here.”  
Behind Icarus appeared a dozen lichs. Above him, and at varying points around the meteor, scores of underlings teleported in and drew their weapons. Dragons encircled Apophis, and the army began.   
“You possess this many? You may be more powerful than I thought.”  
“Actually, all I had to do was ask. No matter what they are, they don’t want their home planets destroyed. So they’re helping me. And…”  
The Black King floated down behind Icarus.  
“Guess who else I brought? Every single person here wants your death, Apophis, and before you can destroy another planet.”  
“You will make a pretty toy, mortal.”  
The army rushed out around Daedalus, and joined the fray. Lich after lich stabbed its blade into the animated skin of Apophis. In the center stood Icarus, tendrils of green growing around his fingers.  
Next to him, the Black King extended his own hand, and tendrils of red formed around it.   
“You know, back in my universe, we had to kill you. Or that iteration of you, at any rate.” Icarus began chatting with the Black King. “It was after the Reckoning, too. I suppose we did it as revenge. I don’t know. But…” He nodded, and the tendrils of green and red launched outwards. “I suppose this is penance, now.”   
The Red Miles intertwined with their Mind-infused brethren, and tore through Apophis. The devourer was torn in two by the strands, ripped to shreds, obliterated. Then…  
“…Shit.”   
Apophis, reassembled, stared through Icarus, and laughed into the face of his miniscule soul.

“So this thing… the Scratch. It will reset everything?”  
“Yes. If you’re right, and our universe was the future of yours, then if it is reset, nothing will happen, and, instead, time will pass as it was meant to.”  
“No World War Three? No universal death?”  
“Neither will happen. Your universe, instead, was an exact copy. So everything will be fixed.”  
“There’s a catch.”  
Pasiphae paused, then nodded. “You won’t exist afterwards. It’ll delete everything in your session. Not even your ghosts will live.”

Daedalus looked back at the meteor- the army was being decimated by Apophis. Hopeless, he thought, as he pushed down his guilt.

Icarus flew backwards quickly, and watched as a wall of Corrupted hide blew past him, tearing the meteor asunder.  
“Damn… that’s it.” Icarus reached down for the bracelet he wore, and took it off as Apophis circled around to attack again. He slipped it into his pocket as he felt the wave of power reach him.  
Limits removed, his clothes glowed and turned green. His sleeves shifted to teal, his shoes to maroon. Lines of data and code, birthed from his brain, encircled him in a shield, and he opened his now-electric green eyes. His iris had taken the symbol of Mind.  
As Apophis rushed towards him, a wall of thought slammed into the beast. It was thrown back by unseen force, and enshrouded in a net of ideas. The net constricted, blowing Apophis into billions of pieces.  
“What will it take to kill you?”  
“I am immortal. You are foolish to try, Lord.”  
“Try me.” A phrase of code split off from the other orbitals, and flew towards Apophis.   
Before it hit, it dissolved. Then, with a shake, a black hole split open. Apophis glared into the Maw, and it shut as quickly as it opened.  
“You toy with aspects not your own.”  
Icarus shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a Lord. I’m not supposed to play by the rules. Now,” he said, as he drew up his arm, and with it, a billion pieces of planet and meteor alike aligned themselves at Apophis, “What I am supposed to do is screw around. Break things. Toy with anything I can. And, of course, fix things. Make them go away, stop being factors. So… to you. I’m going to fix you. I am going to make you not happen.”  
===LordOfMind.data exceeding maximum output levels===  
==/Random Access Memory low\==  
=!/External Program has attempted access\\!=  
=!/Tak̻̈́i̖̓n̟̅g ̡̛ì̠m̋m̹̉é̡d̺́iat̻̒ȅ ̰̈́c̉ͅöùn̜̄ẗe̕rm̓ḙ̊ă̡s̿ü̩r̛ë̤́s̮̒\\!=  
=\/--------HURRY--------\/=  
=\/--------DO SOMETHING--------\/=  
=\/--------IF YOU DON’T,--------\/=  
=\/--------EVERYONE WILL DIE--------\/=


	19. Corruption XIV

Daedalus was sure he heard a voice. Of what, he didn’t know.   
But in his mind, he swore it sounded like Lucifer…  
He looked back at the battle. Even from here, he could see it. The Lord of Mind versus the Corrupted Diety, Apophis and Icarus. On one side of the sky, green light bathed existence in idea. On the other, the black and white static of the Corruption spread ever farther.  
It had reached the Land of Ice and Lightning an hour before. The storm went from the trifecta of elements to the purple of a texture errors, then suddenly went dark. Then, as Daedalus had watched, the planet ate itself. It consumed itself.   
Before that, what remained of the Land of Squares and Stars was overtaken.  
And now, it verged upon the Land of Steel and Storm. 

Thor kneeled, covered in blood, glaring up at his murderer.   
“I am sorry.” And, as the sky fell, he beheaded the Knight of Rage.

Icarus felt the code pass through. The Knight of Rage, dead.   
He pushed it to the back of his head. He couldn’t let it affect him, not in this battle.  
The light winked off. Thor, dead… He couldn’t believe it.  
“That’s it.” He had to do something… he couldn’t let this continue as it was.   
Daedalus sat down, and typed furiously.

The Duke of Breath twisted his blade, disarming his opponent. With a slash, the lich dissolved into grist.   
He stopped, checked his display.   
Daedalus: Come to the Battlefield.

The Monk of Void saw a teal trail across the sky. He watch as it faded away.  
If he had had his computer with him at the time, he would have received a message:   
Daedalus: My Quest Bed on the Battlefield. Hurry.

The Mage of Space saw a flicker on one eye. Closing the other, he read the message sent to him.  
He looked at Pasiphae. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”  
“Hurry. I’m going to join Icarus, now. And Helios.” She flew a few inches into the air. “Good luck.”  
Daedalus: I need your help.

The Prince of Form drew the weapon he received in the Armory. A gun of polished metal, glossed over with black. Looking down the scope, he fired- the ogre erupted into pieces.   
Feeling a buzz in his pocket, he drew his phone. Across the screen was a message.  
Daedalus: My Quest Bed on Skaia, hurry.

The Spark of Blood and the Star of Hope flew into the sky above the Land of Cliffs and Clouds, levitating over the grassland planet. Loki paused. “I just received a message, one moment.”  
“I did too.”  
Daedalus: Meeting, now.  
Daedalus: On the Battlefield.

The Ace of Blaze blew apart the battlefield with flames, the Maid of Light at his side. Then, a message came:  
Daedalus: We’re massing the team.  
Daedalus: Battlefield, at my Quest Bed.

The Soul of Heart escaped her world just as the Corruption reached it, and the clouds collapsed into the hell below. She heard a ring as she did.  
Daedalus: We’re making a last stand on the Battlefield.

Icarus stepped away, and, as Apophis blasted by him, thrust a plate of Mind into its flesh. It split open past, and corrupted data burst out in a geyser of blood. Then, a hundred feet forward, the wound snapped shut. Like a zipper, it sped backwards, crushing and destroying the Mind-blade with ease.  
Icarus retreated quickly. His powers were at their limit, he knew. But even then…  
He pushed himself a bit further. The teal pulsed, brightened, strengthened-  
And winked out as his powers broke down.  
“Damnit!”  
“Need help?”  
He looked up, at Pasiphae floated above him, her hand outstretched. She smiled. “Come on. Let’s go.”  
For the first time in millennia, Icarus smiled. 

“Alright, how are we going to fight back?”  
“We’re no match for it.”  
“What?”  
“All we can do is delay Apophis. We can’t possibly beat it.”  
“Don’t talk like th-“  
“I’m not being cynical. This is my diagnostics ability. Apophis is far too powerful for us to beat, even at full power. Hell, our entire session together couldn’t stand a chance. He’s worth twenty of the Black King. A hundred, even.”  
“You mean…”  
“This is our Last Stand.”  
Pasiphae gave a somber smile. “Well, I suppose we have outlasted our welcome.”  
“Heh, that’s one way to put it. It’s attacking. Here we go.”  
Icarus darted away, but Pasiphae stayed in place. When the beast reached her, a shield of maroon flickered into being. Waves violently screamed across the shield, passing far into space, warping and undulating with enough force to wipe a country from the map.  
Sparks and corruption flew out from the impact, and the symbol of Heart glowed brighter.   
Icarus felt the code: ===MuseOfheart.data exceeding maximum output levels===  
He pushed down the warnings. Skaia could not be allowed to interfere.   
A barrage of thought-bullets barraged Apophis. The snake, however, kept at the barrier, even as it was enveloped. Now trapped within a shield, it writhed all the more violently. Singularities were torn open around it as it let loose a deep roar.   
Icarus began his part of the plan. Apophis was shredded into billions of pieces by slices of Mind, chopped apart as rapidly as it could heal. Again and again.  
The symbol of Mind glowed brighter than ever before. Inspiration reinforced it, and, as red and green, teal and maroon, mixed, it burned brighter than ever could be possible.  
It wasn’t enough, Icarus thought. “It won’t be enough.” The symbol of Mind began to grow hot against his skin as Apophis writhed against the barrier. Finally, a crack broke through the center of the symbol, and the barrage stopped. Icarus floated backwards, and gravity took hold of him.  
The symbol of Heart began to burn as the shield held. Pasiphae winced as her skin burned and her hair smoked.  
She held the barrier, even as a crack appeared. Instead, she brought up more power still.   
It burned bright, brighter still, and power forced itself up and imbued her with strength immeasurable.  
But it still wasn’t enough, Icarus thought, as he fell to the Land of Servers and Data.  
The hairline fracture opened wide, and cracks spread across all the barrier in a matter of moments.  
They reached the end of the shield, and, when they met, the barrier exploded into pieces. Pasiphae jerked back once, then fell still forever.   
Icarus felt the atmosphere growing around him. He opened up his keyboard, and typed up a quick message. Then, as he sent it, he entered the atmosphere. With a grin, he became engulfed in flame, and died.  
“Daedalus, we’ve lost. Sorry. We held him as best we could, but it wasn’t enough.  
It won’t be enough for you, either. You can’t possibly stop Apophis. You can try. Hell, you’ll probably hold him for longer than we did. But you can’t win.  
If you ran away now, you could escape the session. Have kids, live a happy life. But you won’t, will you? You’re going to fight back. But you can’t win, you won’t win.  
You’ll try anyways, though, won’t you? You’re sick of running. That’s why you called everyone together. Isn’t it? You’re tired of running. You’re going to fight back. Aren’t you?  
You won’t survive, if you do. But you’ll be alright. You’ll do well.   
You’ll go far, kid. You’ll do fine. Good luck.”  
===LordOfMind.data ejected===  
===MuseOfHeart.data ejected===

Daedalus, floating above the symbol of Mind, heard a beep. He checked his messages. One from Icarus.

The first to arrive was Helios. He found Daedalus sitting on his Quest Bed, face cast in shadow. “You alright?”  
Daedalus flicked up, eyes open. “Huh? Yeah. I’m fine. Was resting for a minute.”  
Zephyr came moments after. Then, the rest appeared, one after the other. Eight people, finally. All save Cerberus.   
“We can’t wait any longer. I’ll begin.”  
Daedalus summoned up a wall of dust, and images played. All he had seen, all he had known. His knowledge was passed to the rest.  
“So, what? What are we going to do?”  
“There’s nothing we can do to Apophis. He’s too powerful to fight. Instead, we kill the Black King.”  
Zephyr stood. “So, instead of fight the biggest threat, we run away from it? Isn’t that a bit risky?”  
“Yes. And that’s why I’m going to delay it.”  
“But… why you?”  
“I’m the strongest out of all of us here right now. You all can beat the Black King, together. But I’ve never done anything but run. Away from my planet, away from Earth. Away from Icarus. And he died because of it. So you know what? I’m done. I am going to go up there, and I am going to beat the living hell out of Apophis.” Daedalus raised his hand, and a billion cannons formed behind him. “Stop me.”  
“I’m going with you.”  
Daedalus stared at Helios. “Why?”  
“Because. I killed Kronos. I have to atone for it somehow. And so I’ll help you.”  
“But you’re-“  
“Yeah, I know, I’m the one person who has to live- to make the Genesis Frog. I already did, remember? If I die, there’s no consequence now. So I’m going to fight. And you aren’t saying no.”  
“No.”  
“Wha-“  
“No, you aren’t, because you’re going to find Cerberus, and you’re going to bring him here. Then you and he will be auxiliary.”  
Loki stood up. “You’re saying that our strongest fighter is going to be Auxiliary?”  
“In the event that I am distracted… they will fight Apophis instead.”  
“Distracted by what?” Odin asked.  
“Uriel.”  
=!!Session Damage Critical!!=  
=\/Hurry! You have to fight him!\/=  
=\/If you don’t, he will cause the end of the Session!\/=  
=\/You have to kill him, no matter what.\/=  
=\\\Hey, kid. You can do it.//=  
=\\\Trust me.//=  
=\\\You’ll do fine.//=  
=\\!The waking dead are on your side.!/=  
~~~Corruption End~~~


	20. Endgame I

“So, finally, you’re here.”  
“Yeah. I’m here.”  
Uriel and Daedalus floated at opposite ends of the asteroid. Finally, Uriel drew his blade from the light. Daedalus simply raised his hand. “Come on. It’s long past time we ended this, Uriel.”

Apophis watched, and waited. The time shall come, it thought, and then the Session will be destroyed.   
Why should I exist?  
Why must I be?  
Ungodly, unholy, unwanted, unneeded.  
And it is because of humans, I exist.  
It thought.

“So why are you here?”  
Helios approached Cerberus, who stood at the edge of the remains of Prospit. The crater had devastated the Battlefield. Nothing, in the end, was left of the Prospitian army. The Dersite army, meanwhile, was long gone.   
“No reason, really.”  
“Why aren’t you helping us fight? You’re our strongest fighter.”  
“Should I be, though?”  
“Huh?”  
“None of this should have happened in the first place. Entering the session, Earth’s destruction, all of it.”  
“I know. But trust me. I can set everything right, in the end.”  
Cerberus turned to look at Helios.   
“But to do it, we have to win. We have to beat the Black King, we have to stop Apophis. You in?”  
“… Yeah. Lead the way.”

A barrage of missiles beat against the light, but the light held strong. In reply, the light cast forth a million spears. They pounded against the shield of teal, but the shield, too, held.  
As volley after volley passed back and forth, the two drew up more and more power from within. Soon, it was bursting at the seams, and they glowed bright. Yellow-beige on one side, and on the other, the cyan-green of Mind.  
Finally, the volleys faded. The shields disappeared.  
“Well, then, shall we get to the main part of the battle?”  
“Yes, let’s.” Uriel held his rapier up, and light empowered it.  
Daedalus drew up his hand, and the holographic keyboard appeared before him.  
Uriel flashed, closing the distance in less than a moment. The rapier bent against a key of the keyboard, and a string of ‘g’ appeared in the air. Daedalus threw down the blade, spun, and pounded the edge into the back of Uriel’s head.  
A few drops of blood spilling, Uriel ducked back, and healed quickly. Daedalus stood at his full height, and Uriel, too, drew himself up.   
“Well? Come on.”  
Daedalus responded with a railgun blast. The first thing to emerge from the smoke was a flicker of light. Uriel, minus an arm, followed. Infused with rage, he reformed his arm, and charged.   
Daedalus jumped, and a pistol formed out of the air. He snatched it, blasted away. Uriel blocked every shot with a disc of light, and launched each back. The teal shield, unprepared, was broken, and several trails of blood ran backwards.  
He drew up more power, and created ten soldiers.  
Uriel ducked and weaved through the melee, thrusting his blade through the back of each. They all collapsed into dust, and, victorious, he faced Daedalus. Who stood, approximately fifty feet away, with a thousand cannons arrayed behind him. And he was grinning.  
Blast after blast was absorbed into the light, barely. It flickered, but held, even as each fired again. Faltering, the shield winked out, and left nothing in its place.   
Daedalus ducked, and Uriel’s blade pierced the air where he had stood. Shoving off, he fired each cannon at himself, and the blast threw him away. Uriel greeted him where he landed, and Daedalus grabbed his blade. As blood poured off his fingers, Daedalus bent the rapier further and further...  
“You’re the weakest of any of us.”  
“Physical strength? Yes. Determination? Yes. But you know what?” Daedalus snapped the blade in two. “I am pissed. Off. And you stand in my way. So you know what? I’m going to end you. No hard feelings.”

The Black King, as if summoned, touched down on the Quest Bed of Mind. Around him, on the now-extended circle of stone, seven Heroes stood tall, surrounded by an army of Prospitians and Dersites alike.

Apophis circled around the warring pair. 

Readying himself, Daedalus fought with all his might. Thoughts materialized, and the landscape around them morphed from meteor to steamship to nightmare forest.  
Uriel blew apart the meteor, felled the steamship, purified the nightmare. He fought back with the fury of a thousand angels. It fought against all of creation itself, an Archangel against a Creator.  
Light gathered and rebuilt Uriel’s shield.  
Mind gathered and reformed Daedalus’ army. A glass cannon, he thought. Heh.  
He blasted away at the Oracle of Faith.   
A line of code, past to him from someone beyond space, echoed through his head: ===SoulOfMind.data exceeding maximum output levels===  
He knew, suddenly, that if he continued using this much power, Skaia would retaliate. But he could use no less, either.  
He went onto the defensive- Uriel built the Spear of Longinus, thrust it towards him. With a wave, Daedalus punched it out of the air. A flat panel formed at each palm, and Uriel sent a flurry of attacks towards him. Attack after attack, he parried, and as he did, he thought. His mind raced, suggestions and alternatives, pros and cons, each screaming for attention. One after the other, they were discarded, even as his hands raced to block the light starlets.   
Finally, only one was left. He grinned. Daedalus knew he could not defeat Uriel’s shield, nor could he affect Uriel directly…  
He just had to get close.  
Summoning up every ounce of his power and a million more, he drew up Haven, and with her an array of automata. He created the species of his dreams, the Seraphim, and gave them their power. He sent them upon Uriel, and then he himself charged.   
Uriel’s holy shield, amidst their many blasts of elemental power, flickered for a single second. And then Daedalus was trapped within it, and Uriel was within reach. 

Perpetually circling, Apophis grew impatient.  
“The Time has come, mortals. I am your Reckoning. And now is the time you die.”  
Apophis charged, corruption streaming from its mouth.   
Helios, Cerberus at his side, appeared in its path. With an open palm, the Monk of Void stopped Apophis.  
“Relax, Apophis. We’ll keep you company.”  
Cerberus flattened his hand, and a ravine of space opened, not just a singularity but a chasm. Apophis was compressed into a thin line immediately. “That was… easy.”  
“It’s not dead yet.”  
Apophis had already finished regenerating.

Daedalus blocked attack after attack with his keyboard shield, and jabbed forward. His hand hit into Uriel’s stomach, and he doubled over. Rising quickly, Uriel instead stabbed his blade through Daedalus’ chest.  
Daedalus opened his mouth. Blood came out instead. He grinned, a manic smile. “Hah. Hahaha.”  
Uriel’s mouth fell open. “What… what are you doing?”  
“Icarus… haha…” A few drops of blood spilled. “Icarus fell. I guess everybody does, in the end. But no matter who they are, I guess… they can be wrong about things.”  
“What?”  
“I was supposed to die delaying Apophis. But I suppose I’ll take you as a consolation prize.” And he thrust his dagger into Uriel’s heart.  
His mouth fell open, and he stumbled backwards. Then, with a look of penitence, the archangel Uriel fell.  
Daedalus stood for a moment more. He fell to his knees, and stared into space. The dust around him all faded into soft green light, and the forest fell away. Bathed in teal, the Soul of Mind, too, fell. 

The Black King drew himself to his full height. He reached out, and took a sword from the air. As he did, more swords began appearing around him, until finally twelve tall swords floated around him.  
“Come, Heroes. I await your attack.”  
“Why did you help get us all to God Tier?”  
The Black King faced Zephyr. “So I could challenge you at your full strength. Why that? I am unsure. Perhaps it involves your prototypes. But here we stand. Now: Come, Heroes.”  
Zephyr shrugged. He drew his bastard sword and charged.  
The tall blade of the King parried his blow again and again, but he swung regardless. Finally, he got past the King’s guard- and was thrown back by his shield.

Cerberus parried Apophis’s every blow. Nothing got past him- he simply nullified everything.   
Apophis, enraged, loosed a bolt of Corruption. Helios redirected it into the Land of Age and Decay, where it disappeared.  
Cerberus, finally, returned the attack. He disappeared- a moment later, Apophis erupted. Trillions upon trillions of pixels exploded out from the beast. Then, as they began to reform, each pulsed and dissolved.   
Cerberus stood where its tail had been. Void still ran up his arm, but, as Helios watched, it faded.

Horus blocked the sword with his crossbow, then turned and blasted a bolt straight into the Black King’s eye. The flames licked around him, and he burst their power high. Another swing barely missed- Bastet’s luck had pushed it away. The circle of blades, however, could not miss so easily.  
One swung straight towards his ribs- Odin appeared, and glowed bright. The blades stopped at his finger, and the Black King retreated quickly.  
“You… ah, yes. The false god.”  
“I suppose I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t fight, you know. Nor does it mean that you can still keep yourself from thinking I am, even for a split second.” Odin drew his spear. “And that’s all I need, a split second.” He grew to the same height as the King, and pointed the spear. Lightning flew from the tip, striking away the swords of the King’s guard. As each was blown apart, it regenerated, until finally a bolt struck through the King.  
Unharmed, the King stepped closer, even as more bolts struck through him. Finally, he reached Odin, and grabbed the spear. With a twist, it snapped in half, and Odin ducked away.   
The Prince of Form was next. He jumped backwards, and as he flew, he fired away- bullet after bullet pierced the Black King. Each, instead, pinged off of his hardened shell. When the last bullet fired, the Soul of Heart attacked.   
Through willpower, she barraged the King without end. Finally, a blast blew apart his armored shell, and he was exposed to the elements.  
The army attacked, and Jack Noir stabbed his dagger through the hole before it healed. As it did, the Black King rose up, drew back his blades, and swung.   
The hundred Prospitians and Dersites all fell as one, with only a single slash.  
But the dagger stayed in place.   
“He can be hurt. Aim for the dagger.”  
Fenris reloaded his sniper. Loki forced his power stronger, and built up a bond between all of them. He strengthened it into reality.   
As they watched, a wavering light appeared, glowing between each of them. As it did, they began to hear each other’s thoughts. They began to feel and think as one.   
Bastet wove a shield of luck around each of them; Ariadne built a wall of protection. Each of them were protected doubly.   
Zephyr began relaying thoughts and directing orders. This was when the battle truly began.  
The Black King charged. With a roll, Odin moved away, jabbing the broken piece of spear into his armored hide. It bounced away, and Odin again rolled away.   
Horus appeared in his place, and fired a bolt. The flames exploded out, and he intensified them quickly. They erupted into an inferno, and the swords around the King melted and fell away.   
With a wave, the King grabbed Horus, and threw him from the platform.   
Bastet blew his arm off with a wave of light.  
The King, as he regenerated, swung around, and slapped her away. 

Fenris, forgotten, charged his bullet. He had to hit- there would be no second chance.

Loki weaved around his attacks, and slammed his axe into the King, as hard as he could. Horus returned from below to kick the axe, and the armored shell cracked open.  
Bastet heard Zephyr’s order- redirect all her power. Immediately, she did, with full understanding.  
Odin blocked attack after attack, grown to his full height. His spear regenerated in his hand, and grew thirty feet tall. With a glare, he cast it down, crushing the King- who pulled the tip out of his wound, cast it aside, and slashed through Odin’s true stomach. 

Fenris inhaled, exhaled- everything stilled. Nothing, anywhere, in the whole Medium, moved, for that single moment. His finger bent, feeling the cold metal. Finally, the trigger gave way, and time returned.   
It flashed, slowly at first, from the gun’s barrel, but then moved, faster and faster, as perception returned to full speed. It hit the dagger, and, infused with destruction, punched it through the armored plating in its entirety.   
The dagger burst through the King’s back, and Horus fired his crossbow. An incendiary bolt entered the wound and turned into an inferno. With a flash, the King was consumed in flames.   
“Did we get him?”  
“No. Wait.”  
The King, endrenched in blood and entrapped in flames, pushed himself up onto his feet. He stepped out, drew his blade, and charged.  
With a cry, Ariadne created a wall. The King slammed through it, only to find the Prince of Form.  
The King dissolved into a thin pool of black and grey. Skaia began to shine, and the battle was over.  
“We… we won.”

“Look, they won! Let’s go meet up with everyone else.”  
Helios faced away. “No.”  
“What?”  
“I’m not going. I’m going to activate the Scratch, reset everything. The rest of you should go ahead to the new universe. But I’m staying behind.”  
“Why?”  
“Everything that happened. All the death. World War Three. All that was my fault. So, I’m going to make amends. The Scratch will make it so it never happened. Everyone, absolutely everyone can live.”  
Cerberus was silent. Finally, he replied. “Alright. Godspeed.”  
“Heh. I don’t need speed. Goodbye, my friend.”  
“Goodbye.”

Helios appeared on the massive platform of crystal. In the reborn Land of Age and Decay, he ascended the stairs of crystal.   
The Denizen of Time, oddly, was gone.   
Helios stepped up to the sphere of crystal and ruby. He drew his gun, flew up above it, and took aim.

“Where’s Helios? And Daedalus?”  
“They died in battle.”  
“Oh…”  
“Come on. We don’t have much time. Let’s claim the reward.”

They stepped up to the glowing sphere, and placed their hands in it. Eight hands entered, and the sphere glowed bright. Then, it burst outwards, and shined. With a flash, they appeared in a new universe.

Helios fired. The crystal platform erupted. As hordes of enemies appeared around him, he drew his second pistol.   
The horde burst into grist in moments. None were prepared to fight against him. But the Scratch had already begun- it was irreversible, now. With a last sigh, as Skaia glew white, Helios took aim one last time. Then, as the planets around him disappeared, he fired, and fell limp. Then,


	21. Endgame O

“Hey, what are you doing later?”  
“Nothing, really.”  
“Maybe you come over this weekend. Dunno.”  
“Sure, why not.”  
“Alright. Anyways, hey, I wanted to ask you about something.”  
“What?”  
“Could you read over a bit of my newest story? The main character’s Haven. The one I’ve been talking about.”  
“Sure, why not.”  
“Great. Here:”

This is the new universe, where tragedy has struck a million times. This is not the Alpha Earth, nor Beta, but Omega. It is the last Earth. The one that shall persist. Nuclear Fire shall not touch this world as it has ours.  
We are the Dreaming Dead, those fallen in battle. We have told this story, to the best of our ability, as it happened. But here, we are happy. We may be dead, but here is where amends have been made. Here is where Kronos, Helios, and I sit, side by side. Here is where Icarus and Pasiphae have once more met the friends of their session, and where life has begun, even in death.  
The dream bubbles aren’t too bad, I suppose. Somewhat dreary. But I’ve found my emotions here. I’ve realized that there is more than just logic and fear to life. Here, in death, I have realized this. Heh. Say what you will about irony, but I think I’ve taken the cake. Normally people realize all this before death, wouldn’t you say?  
I suppose I realized it, perhaps, in my final moments, as I stood there facing Uriel, my dagger- well, Cerberus’s dagger- in my hand, in his chest.   
But it’s not all bad. We watch over Earth, watch over our friends, even though we have died. There is an afterlife. Though I never was afraid of death, I was afraid to die without accomplishing something, and now I can see all I did.  
My Post-scratch self- Omega-self, I suppose- has become a game writer. He’s become what I dreamed of being. He’s become a father, changed the world through art and through parenthood. He’s done everything I wanted to. And though I wish I could experience it myself, I’m glad that he did.  
Here, in the dream bubbles, here, in the afterlife, I can see all my friends have done. Those who still live. They have created a new universe, and in this universe, war is nonexistent. They have guided over it not as distant gods, but as accessible mentors, preaching peace and cooperation. They have created utopia- something that was never possible for humanity. They have done what we never could. And for that, here in the afterlife, I am grateful.  
For here is where I watch. Where Kronos watches the passage of time, where Helios watches the growth of space. Where I watch the creations of thought and of intelligence.   
Here is where Lucifer and Uriel sit side by side, staring up at the sky.   
Here is where amends have been made.  
And for that, I am grateful.  
Eventually, we have seen, the others join us. The eight who survived. It’s inevitable. All must die. But they, when they join us, will be gladly welcomed. Their heroic deaths will never be in vain, for even after, their planet is utopia. 

“Hey, Icarus, I need some help.”  
He steps over. “Yeah?”  
“I need another set of eyes. What do you think of this design?”  
“It could work, but it’s risky. The wings might give out under heavy storm. Try reinforcing them with a lightweight material… Hydrogen-based, I think. It’ll be acidic, so careful not to touch it.”  
“Alright, thanks. I’ll try that out.”  
Soon, my wings will be finished, and I will fly. Here, in our dream bubbles, we have created a city. We have created life once more, even in death. And for that, I am grateful.  
So, to you, who read this. Your Omega-Scratch universe is ideal. It is safe. Never mistake it for something different. Never mistake it for horrible, for your world lives, for humanity strives. The human spirit is unconquerable, and undefeatable. Whether tested by flame or by foe, you will never falter, never fail. Despite all the flaws in the world, you have come so far, all of you, yet all of you can go so much farther still. Death may never be stopped, for tragedy is eternal, but so is life, heroism, love, dream. The dream, that is what you strive for. All of you. To become who you want to be. To honor your heroes. And, no matter what happens, follow that dream. Become as you wish. Your world, despite how incredibly flawed it is, is amazing, beautiful. It is utopia without utopia. It is as close as can ever be, for utopia is impossible for us humans. It is the eternal goal. Betterment. Improvement. Creation. Make the world a better place, and damn the impossible, make it utopia anyways, for even if human nature is strife and hate, it is peace and love, too.


End file.
